The New New Directions
by lozlol
Summary: It's the year 2025 and the Glee Club has long been destroyed when Marley and the next generation decide to bring it back, the only problem is they need to get to Nationals to keep the club going. Join Aria Berry, Beth Corcoran, Danny Schuester, Aisha Abdi, Asher and Kaelynn Lopez-Pierce as they struggle through high school, eating disorders, relationships with the help of glee club
1. Character Overview

_**Glee- The New New Directions Character List**_

 ** _AN: Hi guys! So I've been working on this story on and off for over a year, so I hope you really enjoy it, even if you don't like some of the adult couples don't worry, this story is mainly about the next generation kids._**

 **Finn+Rachel  
Aria Melody Berry- 14 years old. Main character. Aria's the opposite of her Broadway loving mother in many ways. She's into rock, hip-hop and soul, she dyes her hair with blue streaks- but she's just as feisty as Rachel Berry and she has her dead father's leadership and kindness, especially for the people she loves. Is Aria's careless act just that? An act?**

 **Sam+Rachel  
Bailey Evans - 6 years old. Major character. After Rachel remarried Sam and had beautiful blonde Bailey, it took Aria a while to adjust, in fact she's still adjusting now. Bailey would love a big sister, but Aria seems to hate her.  
Travis Evans- 4 years old. Major character. Travis might just be starting pre-K this year, but he knows more than people think.**

 **Will+Emma  
Daniel Finn Schuester- 14 years old. Main character. Daniel knows that his mom probably has a pamphlet for his problems at school, if he can ever be brave enough to talk to his parents about it. He's sick and tired of all the cool kids making fun of him and calling him names, but will he ever get up the nerve to tell anyone what's going on?  
Eleanor Schuester- 11 years old. Minor Character**

 **Quinn+Puck  
Beth Corcorran- 17 years old. Main character. Beth has had the perfect life; head of the cheerleading squad, the best friend anyone could hope for, three parents that love her more than anything in the world. She's the Queen Bee everyone wishes they themselves were in high school. But when something happens to one of her parents, how will Beth cope?  
Unnamed baby/babies- Unborn. Minor character/s.**

 **OC+OC  
Aisha Abdi- 17 years old. Main character. Aisha and Beth have been best friends since first grade when the blonde girl asked if she could do Aisha's hair. Aisha seems like the perfect Hindu daughter, but she's hiding a secret that will ruin her if it gets out.**

 **Santana and Brittany**

 **Asher Lopez-Pierce- 18 years old. Main character. Asher is in his last year of high school when his moms decide to move back to Lima from LA. There, he re-meets Kurt's sister Maeve, and learns that falling in love is harder than it's cracked up to be.**

 **Kaelynn Lopez-Pierce- 16 years old. Main character. Kaelynn's been betrayed before, so she's hoping for a new start in Lima and finds a seconds family in the Glee Club.**

 **Jackson 'Jax' Lopez-Pierce- 12 years old. Minor character.**

 **Dane Lopez-Pierce- 8 years old. Minor character.**

 **OC+OC  
Liam Fenton- 14 years old. Major character. Liam might seem like he's the one that's just there to make up the numbers, but he's got a voice and a secret dream.**

 **OC+OC  
Natalia Gonzales- 14 years old. Major character. Natalia suffered her fair share of abuse as the only Mexican girl at her first few schools. When she transferred to Aria, Danny and Liam's middle school in seventh grade, she finally found some friends. They stuck up for her and now it's her turn to return the favour.**

 **Sheldon+OC**

 **Kieran Beiste- 14 years old. Major character. Kieran's a twin, and he's the less confident one…or is he? Kieran is bullied just like Natalia was, and just like her, he won't let people hurt his friends, well, he wouldn't… if he had any.  
Maya Beiste- 14 years old. Major character. Maya might seem tough, but inside, she's as easy to blow over as a feather. Her father went through a gender change and although these days it should be a more accepted thing, she's grown up with the whispers and jeers to know that she has to hide her fear behind a fake attitude…**

 **Burt+Carole  
Maeve Hummel- 17 years old. Major character. When Maeve was just three years old, her brother Finn died at the age of nineteen. People don't think she remembers but she does. Her parents really tried their best and so did her other brother Kurt, but those first few years were tough and she had to learn to look out for herself. Now it's senior year and she's determined to make it her best year ever.**

 **Sue+OC  
Robin Sylvester- 16 years old. Minor character.**

 **Marley+Jake**

 **Jasmine Puckerman- 8 years old. Minor character.**

 **Matthew Puckerman- 8 years old. Minor character.**

 **OC+OC**

 **Lucas Obermier- 16 years old. Minor character.**

 **OC+OC**

 **Dylan Cohen- 16 years old. Minor character.**

 **Kurt+Blaine  
Phoebe Anderson-Hummel- 8 years old. Minor character.  
Charles Anderson-Hummel- 4 years old. Minor character.**

 **Kitty and Artie  
Austin Abrams- 12 years old. Mentioned.  
Abigail Abrams- 10 years old. Mentioned.**

 **This fanfic is going to focus on Aria (daughter of Finn and Rachel, Sam is her stepfather), Daniel (son of Emma and Will), Beth (daughter of Quinn and Puck, adopted by Shelby), Aisha (daughter of two OC's) and later Asher and Kaelynn (the older children of Santana and Brittany).**


	2. Chapter 1

_**Glee- The New New Directions**_

 _ **Chapter 1:**_

Aria Melody Berry took a deep breath as she shoved her hair into a messy bun, then headed to her jewellery box. She was searching for her purple studs that perfectly matched her purple and lime striped dress but they had seemingly disappeared. Aria let out a huffing noise but she didn't have time to look for them- one of The Brats had probably stolen them. Instead she rooted through the box and found some square shaped lime studs that would work and paired them with her signature 'A' necklace. She looked herself over in the mirror briefly and shrugged. Perfect. Well, as close as she could get to perfect living in a house with apes anyway.

"Bye Sam, bye Brats, bye Mom!" Aria attempted to leave the house without bumping into her mother, but it was no use. Rachel was waiting for her daughter at the bottom of the stairs.

"Aria," Rachel said with a teasing tone. "I hope you weren't trying to get out of here without saying goodbye to me first?"

"Nope," Aria shook her head as she dodged past her mother to get her bag from where it was hanging off her chair at the table in the kitchen. She snatched a banana and took a bite, knowing her mother would complain if she didn't eat breakfast. "I just said it- bye mom." She repeated.

"Fine, I'll let you get away with that just this once. You know, Sam could always take you in, he does work at McKinley." Her mom pointed out. True, Sam was the football coach and boy's gym teacher at her school, but Aria didn't want to go with him- it wasn't exactly cool to show up for your first day at high school with a teacher- maybe middle school, but definitely not high school. Anyway, Sam's car always smelt like the odd combination of take-out and lip balm.

"Sorry babe, I can't!" Came Sam's call from upstairs, saving her. "I'm getting Bailey and Travis dressed and it's taking a while." Aria's six and a half year old half-sister was in her second year of kindergarten and her four year old half-brother Travis was starting pre-K. Bailey could get herself dressed but she was a spoilt brat and liked getting attention- whoever said the middle kid got ignored obviously hadn't met this family.

"Fine, love you sweetheart. Have a great day. Tell Beth I hope she has a nice day too." Rachel planted a sloppy kiss on her daughter and then watched Aria run to the flashy red car beeping at them for her first day of high school.

"Mommy!" Came two insistent cries from way behind Aria. And then Bailey's voice took over, "Daddy says he needs you 'cause he can't answer my question about where Travis came from!" Wow, it never stopped in that house.

Aria did her best to block her family out of her mind as she got into her aunt/one of her best friends' car and took a deep breath. "My mom is insane."

* * *

Beth Corcoran pulled her hair up into her signature high pony and finished her light make-up before staring at her reflection. Today was her first day of her last year of high school. She had conflicting feelings about it. On the one hand it was sure to be fun and college would be an exciting journey, but on the other hand she didn't want to leave high school. College would be terrifying. But she had a year, a year she could make better than any other.

"Beth," Her mom called. "Hurry up! Aria's starting school this year, remember,so you need to leave earlier than usual if you're going to pick her and Aisha up." Oh yeah, Aria was her adoptive sister's daughter. Other people were a bit surprised when Beth explained that she was friends with her niece but she'd been four years old when Aria was born, they'd grown up together, so it wasn't strange to her. Aria's dad Finn had upsettingly died before Aria was born, so Rachel had been a single mom for the first few years of Aria's life and Shelby often babysat Aria for her. As soon as Beth reached fourteen, Aria was ten and Bailey was two they let Beth babysit the half-sisters herself, whenever Rachel and Sam were out on a date, with friends or busy with work. Beth was glad her sister had found love again- but back to the first day of senior year.

"Bye Mom," Beth kissed her mom on the cheek and then grabbing her WMHS school colour red, white and black bag, hurried out of the door towards her car as her mom shouted after her that she had to go to Puck and Quinn's house today after school, not that she didn't already know that- she went every Monday and Thursday. Beth was proud of her car. It was McKinley red, glistening and drove as smooth as if she were riding on air. As usual she picked up her best friend and fellow cheerleader Aisha first.

"Hey girl," Aisha grinned. "Ready for senior year?"

"Oh you know I am," Beth smiled back and then headed to Rachel's house.

"So how are you and Harvey doing?" Aisha asked, something in her voice, Beth wasn't sure what it was.

"Oh, we broke up." Beth filled her friend in on how she and Harvey did the mature thing and decided that they shouldn't be together seeing as he kept eying Marlene Jennings and that she was Beth's worst enemy since 6th grade and all.

"Too bad," Aisha said, although she didn't seem disappointed. "You two made a cute couple." Beth practically spat out her drink at that.

"He's like ten feet taller than me!" Aisha rolled her eyes. "Fine, he's just over one foot taller than me. But it makes all the difference in prom pictures!" Aisha rolled her eyes again- Beth was slightly prom-obsessed. She had in fact already circled the date on her calendar for Senior Prom and was counting down the days. They pulled up outside Rachel's house.

"Do you want me to go ring the doorbell?" Aisha asked.

Beth shook her head and beeped on the horn. They waited a minute or two, Beth honked on the horn again and as they were about to get out and go ring on the doorbell, Aria came dashing out of the door towards the car, Rachel smiling and waving in the doorway with Aria's half-sister clutching at her mom's leg and saying something about babies. Beth waved back at her adoptive sister and niece quickly before the house's door shut and then her car door slammed as Aria threw herself into the back seat.

"My mom is insane," She announced.

"Well, hello there niece. Nice to see you too." Beth said and Aisha giggled. Her two friends started to talk about something and Beth tuned out of the conversation, staring at the road ahead until Aisha asked her something that she inevitably didn't hear. "Huh?"

Aria snickered, so Beth rolled her eyes at her in the mirror as Aisha explained that she was just asking if Beth knew that the hot Coach Evans was Aria's dad.

"He's not my dad!" Aria complained. She was always quick to make that fact clear that Sam Evans was her stepfather and that they were not at all blood related. Beth never really understood why it would be such a bad thing to have people think you were related to the hottest teacher that ever existed- Aria's father had died before the girl was even born so it wasn't like she'd ever known him- but she let it go as usual with an,

"Of course I knew! He's my sister's husband and I was a bridesmaid at their wedding." The three girls burst out laughing.

* * *

Daniel Finnegan Schuester forced a smile at his parents as they beamed across at him at the breakfast table. He smiled with effort at his phone-obsessed twelve year old sister Eleanor and even smiled awkwardly at the dog, Bernie. Daniel's parents were excited that this was his first year of high school. They had both been teachers at the school he would be attending. In fact his father was still sort of a teacher as he was a private vocal coach (and he worked with Aria's mom), although his mother had opened a company that produced pamphlets with helpful advice for problems such as "ouch, that stings!" and "so you like throwing up". Daniel's mother probably had a pamphlet for his problem if he ever got up the courage to tell his parents what it was- but who was he kidding- it was just like all the boys at school said- he was a chicken and an idiot.

Realising that he had only five minutes to get to the bus stop, Danny took off at a run- running back to his house again when he realised that he'd forgotten his bag.

"Hurry up, son!" His dad reminded him. "You're going to miss the bus." Oh, if only.

Danny got to the bus stop just as the doors were slamming shut. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how he looked at it) at his waving hands the bus driver re-opened the doors and Danny climbed on. He scanned the bus for a safe place to sit but almost everywhere there seemed to be mocking glares, judgemental frowns. The bus jolted forwards and he fell into the lap of a cheerleader who looked to be a senior.

"Ew!" The girl cried out in disgust and he leapt up before her boyfriend could punch him off of her. Finally, he found an empty seat near the back of the bus. He tried to ignore it as spit balls cascaded his way and hissing whispers clearly directed at him called him a retard.

The twenty minute journey to hell felt more like a lifetime but things could only get worse from here. As Danny made his way to the front of the bus someone's leg was purposefully stuck out and he tripped over it- landing face forward.

"Whoops, sorry." Giggled the blonde cheerleader whose lap he'd fallen into as she literally walked all over him to get to the exit. Danny waited until everyone else was off the bus before he pulled himself to his feet and made his way to reception.

The school's reception was brimming with students collecting their timetables. The one good thing about this was that no-one noticed him so Danny could slowly make his way to the front of the line and collect his timetable with fear of neither wedgie nor verbal harassment. He barely glanced at his timetable, he simply took note of the room number of his home room and set off on a search to find it.

Way too terrified to ask for directions from a student, he searched the halls until he found a teacher- thankfully it was one he knew- Aria's stepfather. "Hi, Sam." He smiled nervously. "Do you have any idea where Room 168 is?"

Sam nodded and ruffled Daniel's hair. "Sure, buddy. I'm headed that way so I'll walk you." The walk was silent on Daniel's side, Sam doing most of the talking about sports and asking if Danny would be trying out.

He scoffed in response. "Really? You know me. I can't even catch a ball, let alone run with one or whatever it is you do in football."

Sam ruffled his hair again and smiled. "Sorry to hear it. Well, here's your home room. I'll see you around- have a good day and wish Aria one if you see her too. I didn't see her much this morning." Daniel nodded, took a deep breath and ducked into the room.

It was chaos- people screaming and laughing and hugging and giggling- a paper airplane landed itself at his feet- but at least it wasn't a spit ball.

"Danny!" He spun around although he didn't need to, there was no mistaking that voice.

"Ar!" They collided in a huge hug. When they let go he let back, glancing at her hair and noticed the blue streaks. "Aria! What did you do to your hair? Did your mom ground you, for life?"

"Oh no, it's dip dye, mom won't let me fully dye my hair until I'm fifteen!"

"You say that like it's a long time away."

"It is!"

"It's three months!"

"That's a long time to me. Anyway, I can't believe we haven't seen each other for almost two months. It's so annoying that our holidays clashed. Ooh!" Aria said suddenly. "You've grown."

"Well I needed it- you've been towering over me since pre-K!"

"I didn't mean just in height." She said with a giggle, her eyes scanning his body and resting on his eyes. Suddenly she laced her hand through his and yanked him over to where she was sitting with their two other best friends from middle school, Natalia and Liam. That feeling was pumping through his body again. That feeling that both terrified and excited him. The one he got whenever he was standing touching distance away from Aria Berry.

* * *

Aisha Abdi smiled at her best friend Beth Corcoran as they climbed out of Beth's car- Aria following behind them. As soon as they got out of the car a rabble of cheerleaders and footballers ran over to them. But Beth linked one arm through Aria's and one through Aisha's. Beth whispered to them as they marched down the hallways, the others having to follow behind them. People parted like the Red Sea as they walked down the halls and Aisha felt like she was glowing- in fact she probably was. She and Beth had been best friends for as long as Aisha could remember- she couldn't remember a time when the blonde wasn't at her side. They'd gone through everything together. And standing next to Beth, she felt like they could conquer anything together.

People hastily moved out of the way, collecting their timetables as Aisha observed with glum that she had math first, not a good way to start a Monday morning. On the plus side, she and Beth were in the same home room and they could pass notes for those dull minutes as Mrs Hoosenbex read extracts from her autobiography or as Aisha liked to call it, the Tale of a Moody Spinster. But when their teacher walked into the room it wasn't the old woman, it was the man they'd been talking about in the car.

"Woah," She leant forward on her arm, her eyes following him as he moved, although she didn't feel any attraction to him whatsoever, but that was what normal girls did, right? "Hubba, hubba."

Beth leant over to Aisha and whispered in her ear, "that's my adoptive brother-in-law you're ogling there, missy." At which point they both burst out laughing, causing Sam to give them a mock angry expression, "quiet please, ladies."

"As many of you probably know, I'm Coach Evans and as likely all of you will not know, I will be taking over this home room after Mrs Hoosenbex had a mental break-down at the end of the summer vacation." Aisha peered quickly around the room and saw almost all the other girls (except Beth) also staring at their hot new teacher. "Feel free to use this time however you like for today, I need to organise the football team's try-outs."

Aisha turned to Beth but before she'd even opened her mouth the blonde was shaking her head. "No!"

That lunch break they had free as Cheerio's sectionals practise would start after try-outs, next week- there really was no point in them wearing their cheer uniforms today, it was just what they'd always done- so Aisha and Beth decided against eating with the other popular kids and met up with Aria and her friends; Daniel, Natalia and Liam. Despite the others being freshmen, the six of them actually had a lot of fun giggling under the bleachers and at the end of lunch break Aria dragged the others to the notice board- saying that her mom would make her help out at community theatre if she didn't sign up for a club to use as an alibi. Aisha scanned the notice board as she waited but there wasn't anything unusual. Suddenly Beth pointed at something.

"What's 'Glee Club'?" The blonde girl asked the others.

"No clue," Natalia responded, as Aisha noted that the only names on there were fake and what high school boys thought of as 'funny'. Aisha whipped out her new phone and typed in Glee Club at lightning speed without looking at the screen.

"It's like choir." She summarised as she skim-read the Wikipedia page. "They dance and sing and there's competitions- like with Cheerleading- Sectionals, Regionals and Nationals."

"That sounds like it could be fun," Beth grinned. "Why don't we all sign up together?"

Aisha stared at the sign-up sheet and then pulled her blonde friend over and whispered, "It doesn't exactly look like a club for people like us."

Beth just smiled that smile that Aisha knew meant she had a plan. "Maybe not now, but I bet when the two most popular girls in school sign up, that'll change. Please!" She made the puppy dog face she knew Aisha couldn't resist and sure enough the brunette caved in. Beth grabbed a pen from her bag and scribbled both their names on; staring at the others who, hesitantly, followed suite.

"Cool," Beth smiled confidently before waving her fingers in a wave. "See you on Thursday at Glee Club auditions."

 **Next Time: The kids audition, Aria and Rachel have a fight about Finn, and Quinn, Puck, and Beth talk about Glee Club.**


	3. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2:**_

 _ **Hi! Thanks for your reviews/faves/follows, keep them coming! No flames please, but constructive criticism is good. If you have an account I'll reply to you on PM, if not I'll reply at the start of the next chapter.**_

 _ **The drama/romance will be coming into play in the next couple of chapters.**_

 _ **Previously on The New New Directions: Danny is getting bullied and has a crush on Aria, Aisha has a secret, and the kids signed up for the revived Glee Club.**_

Aisha was seriously questioning her sanity as she stood on the stage in front of the new teacher (her name was Mrs Puckerman and she was their cheerleading coach, AKA Beth's biological mom's, sister in law) and recited her name and what she'd be singing. Why was she doing this? She glanced across the stage and remembered. Oh, yes, Beth. Damn her.

"Well go ahead, Aisha," Said the kind looking woman with a comforting smile.

Aisha took a deep breath and then began to sing a stripped down version of one of her favourite songs.

 _ **Do you ever feel like breaking down?  
Do you ever feel out of place,  
Like somehow you just don't belong  
And no one understands you?  
Do you ever wanna run away?  
Do you lock yourself in your room  
With the radio on turned up so loud  
That no one hears you're screaming?**_

 _ **No, you don't know what it's like**_  
 _ **When nothing feels all right**_  
 _ **You don't know what it's like**_  
 _ **To be like me**_

Aisha was out of breath by the end of the song and she had to wipe her eye with her sleeve, but the teacher was clapping.

"That was amazing!" Mrs Puckerman said. "Your voice carried so much emotion. Well, the list of members will be posted by the end of the week. Check to find out if you got in."

"Thanks," Aisha smiled and practically ran off the stage straight into Beth.

"Ohmigod-ohmigod-ohmigod!" Beth squealed, hugging her. "I never knew you could sing like that."

Aisha giggled. "I guess it was just a spur of the moment thing."

"So, what was that song about?" Beth asked, sounding very caring. "It was really emotional." Thankfully, Aisha was saved by Mrs Puckerman calling Beth onto the stage to audition. Aisha watched as Beth strutted confidently around the stage whilst singing Dark Horse by Katy Perry, even incorporating some cheerleading into her audition, why didn't Aisha think of that? Beth was always amazing when she performed, radiant.

At the end of Beth's song she hurried over to Aisha. "Was that alright?"

"Are you kidding me?" Aisha gave her a quick hug. "You were amazing! That somersault in the dance break practically had Mrs Puckerman leaping out of her chair with excitement!"

Beth glanced at the teacher. "I mean, I know my dancing was fine, but how was my singing? I sort of felt like Marley was just being nice to me because she's friends with my parents, and Rachel and Sam."

"Trust me," Aisha took Beth's hand. "You were awesome at every part of that audition and of course you got in Beth Corcoran. You're the most naturally talented performer I've ever seen- it's like, in your genes."

Beth chuckled, "you think it's in _my_ genes? Look at Rachel Berry and Finn Hudson's daughter." She pointed at Aria who was currently auditioning and chuckled. "She has no clue how talented she is."

* * *

Aria watched her friends' auditions and realised just how great they were. How was she supposed to compete with pure emotion and triple somersaults? Then she had to remind herself that it wasn't a competition. Apparently she'd always been like that, her mom said. Sam said her mom had been just as competitive if not more as Aria was at her age. Aria had seen enough of the videos her mom made her watch of her mom, Sam, their friends and her real father performing in their glee club competitions to know that her mom was extremely talented, so maybe it was fair that she had been competitive at something she was born to do. But Aria had always been overly competitive about everything; surfing the biggest wave against Sam on family holidays, building taller lego houses than the other kindergarten kids. She'd once knocked down another three year old girl at the holiday kid's club's sand castle down (and screamed and stomped all over it for a good half hour) after the supervisor said that the other girl's sand castle was better when they were having a competition. The thing with Aria was that she always needed to win to know that everything was perfect, to know that her father would be proud of her. But now she just had to remember that this was not a competition; this was for fun, a club.

So she stepped onto the stage when her name was called out, getting a good luck from her best friend Danny and from her other friends Natalia and Liam. Beth and Aisha gave her quick comforting smiles and she tried her best to put her own smile on her face as she announced her name, although Marley knew very well what her name was.

"Well hi there Aria," Marley said. "What are you doing at auditions? I thought you hate music."

"No," Aria protested. "I just hate Broadway, and can you blame me? I've been forced to watch it all my life. Apparently, my mom even played it to me when I was a foetus!" Marley burst out laughing and even Aria managed to crack a smile.

"I'd have to agree with you there," Marley said when she'd recovered. "So what are you going to be singing today, Aria?"

Aria grinned. "Something old school." Marley grinned, gave her a thumbs up and Aria began to sing into the microphone.

 _ **When I had you to myself, I didn't want you around  
Those pretty faces always made you stand out in a crowd  
But someone picked you from the bunch, one glance was all it took  
Now it's much too late for me to take a second look**_

She continued the song confidently and soon she was nearing the end.

 _ **I want you back  
Forget what happened then  
And let me live again!**_

Aria somehow ended the song on her knees, holding the microphone in the air, visualising herself in front of a full house, screaming for an encore. And there was screaming all right. Her friends were all cheering and then fell silent as Marley shushed them, Aria suddenly feeling incredibly nervous.

"Aria," Marley said. "Your tone is so unique, and that song was sung by a very famous group, but you managed to make it sound your own. That was wonderful."

"Thanks," Aria nodded brusquely and collected herself before leaving the stage and ran into Danny's arms. "Oh my god, that was probably the most humiliating moment of my life."

"What?" Natalia said shocked, pushing a loose bit of hair behind Aria's ear and looking into her eyes. "But you were great."

"I don't know what I was doing," Aria revealed, burying her face in Daniel's shoulder. "I was acting so stupid at the end."

"You looked and sounded just like a popstar," Liam said and rubbed her back comfortingly. "You have nothing to worry about."

Aria's other aunt, Maeve, appeared suddenly. "Aria, you were great!" She said. Aria nodded, not really listening.

"Beth," Aria whispered and the blonde girl looked over.

"Yeah."

"Can I talk to you alone?" Aria asked. Beth nodded and linked her arm through Aria's, pulling her out of the back stage-door.

* * *

Danny stared at Aria and felt his lip quirking upwards. She looked more at home than he'd ever seen her before, performing on that stage. At the end of her routine though, she looked nervous. Marley praised her and yet when Aria came off the stage she barrelled into him and started complaining about being bad. Danny stroked her back gently and tried to hush her, but she was Rachel Berry's daughter- it was impossible to quieten her when she got started. As she asked Beth to talk to her and the two girls left, Danny was stuck with a feeling of intense uselessness. His name was called out though after Liam and Nadine had sung their duet, and then he had to audition. It was strange, auditioning for this person who his father had taught.

He auditioned sat on a stool with his guitar and a song his dad used to sing him to sleep with- Blackbird by the Beatles- and he knew Marley well enough from the unofficial but frequent Glee Club reunions to know that she was pleased with his performance, smiling widely at him.

When he went back over to the others Aria was back. He gave his best friend a quick hug. "What are you doing here? I thought you were talking to Beth."

Aria shrugged. "I couldn't miss my best friend's audition. You were really good." He smiled at her. "Can I talk to you quickly?"

Danny nodded and followed behind her. They stopped just outside the door and Aria pulled him into an alcove. "Danny, the thing is, I think Marley only said those nice things because my mom is friends with her."

He shook his head and chuckled. "You are an idiot."

"Hey!" Aria swatted at him.

"Sorry," Danny took her hand. "Look, what I meant is, you're an idiot to think that you weren't the best person to audition."

"Oh, Danny," Aria burst out laughing at that, letting go of his hand and ruffling his hair with that hand. "You do make me laugh." He raised an eyebrow. "Look, Beth managed to convince me that I was okay, but I'm pretty sure I was by no means 'good'."

Danny shook his head. "Aria Melody Berry, you were the best! Trust me." He hugged her tight for a moment and then the two of them headed backstage again to watch the rest of their friends' auditions.

After school, Danny went around Aria's house. Aisha kindly gave them a lift as it was Thursday so Beth was going around Puck and Quinn's house after school. When they got to the house, it was chaos, as usual. Six and a half year old Bailey and four year old Travis were running havoc around the house, their father chasing behind them trying to catch them, and Rachel was nowhere in sight, Danny presumed she was in the 'music room' trying- operative word trying- to get some work done.

Aria dodged past her half siblings and made her way into the kitchen, her friend following slightly more tentatively behind her. "Cookie?" Aria said completely calmly as if her eardrums weren't being broken at that moment! Danny nodded and Aria passed him one from the jar.

"Can I have a cookie Ari?" Travis had crept over, drawing out the oo in cookie as he appeared at his half-sister's leg.

"Of course," Aria grinned, "not." She put the cookie jar up on a high shelf as Danny raised his eyebrow.

"I have an idea," He bent down so he was at Bailey's (who'd just come over to try to get a cookie too) height. "If you two stop annoying your daddy and do what he says, you can each have a cookie."

"Before dinner?" Bailey asked in amazement.

"Yep," Danny said, popping the p. He picked her up and spun her around, putting her down on the table and then did the same trick with Travis.

Travis stuck his tongue out at his half-sister and Bailey stuck her nose up in the air, adding, "Danny's much nicer than you!"

"Danny's much nicer than you, too." Aria told the country music named siblings.

"Be nice," Sam told his step-daughter and his blood children. "Danny, you're a saint. Thanks for that. You staying for dinner today?"

"It's nothing, and no thanks Sam, not today." He said, then followed Aria upstairs to her room.

The two of them lay peacefully on their chests on Aria's bed as they did their homework for a few minutes, until Rachel burst into the room, squealing.

"Oh my baby! You're joining Glee Club?!" Danny looked away, trying to stifle his laughter.

"Mom."

Rachel ran over to the bed. "Quinn and Puck called me saying Beth told them. I didn't even know Glee Club was re-starting!"

"Mom."

"This is why you didn't want to help me with community theatre? Oh baby, why didn't you just tell me? Oh- I have to-"

"Mom, please shut up!" Aria snapped.

Rachel looked upset. "No need to be rude."

Aria groaned. "Well, that was the only way to shut you up. I didn't join Glee Club for you, or for Dad's memory or whatever-" She paused, realising what she'd said. Rachel's hand went to her heart. Danny suddenly wished he wasn't there. "Mom, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean-"

Rachel's voice was quiet, sounded broken. "Danny, I think it's time for you to go home." He didn't say anything, he just headed out of the door and down the stairs.

"What's going on?" Bailey asked him, tugging at his jeaned leg. "Did Mommy ground Ari? We heard shouting then quiet."

Daniel wasn't really sure what to say, he looked to Sam, but he was trying to get Travis to give him back his sharp pen. "They're having a fight," He said and then he bent down to Bailey.

"They fight a lot." The blonde little girl told Daniel.

"Do they?" He asked, although he knew they did.

"Yeah. Mommy normally shouts at her when they fight, she only goes quiet when they talk about Ari's daddy." Daniel was really stuck at what to do. "Ari doesn't really talk 'bout her daddy much."

"No?"

"No."

"I have to go home, Bailey." He bent down and kissed her forehead. "Just let them talk. K?"

Bailey nodded. "K."

* * *

Beth felt like that day had been a success; her glee audition after school went well, she managed to convince Aria that she was not a terrible singer, and at lunch her cheerleading coach was very impressed with her leadership skills and said she was doing a good job as captain. Now, she was sitting in her cheerleading coach/biological mother's car, telling her about her glee audition.

Quinn was surprised but excited at the prospect of a revived glee club, telling Beth how she and Puck had been in New Directions and that it had changed both of their lives for good. Beth knew this of course, she'd seen all the competition DVD's. "You know," Quinn said. "When I was pregnant with you, the Glee Club were my only friends. The only people who stood up for me and didn't treat me like total crap." Beth didn't know this. Quinn seemed to shake herself off. "Anyway, you'll have to tell Puck. He'll be so proud of you."

Beth smiled. "Thanks Quinn. Is he home?"

"Not yet, I don't think," Quinn said. "He had a meeting, he's probably on his way back now."

They pulled up in the driveway and Beth grabbed her stuff before climbing out of the car and heading inside.

"So when do you go on maternity leave?" Beth asked Quinn as she dumped her bag on the chair she'd designated as 'the Beth chair'. It was a red audio armchair with a button that you could press to bring out to recline, plus a foot rest, another for a desk type thing for her homework, and a final button that turned the inbuilt speakers on- she usually connected it via WiFi to her phone's music. The chair had been too big for her most of her life. Beth had picked it out at age five and her birth parents promised that they would let no-one except her sit in that chair, ever!

"Oh, not for a while yet," Quinn explained. "I'm only sixteen weeks pregnant, Beth- I'm hardly showing." Beth giggled. "Help me out in here?" Quinn asked a moment later from the kitchen. Beth ran to the room that was hers when she stayed here overnight, took off her shoes and quickly switched from her tight cheerleading outfit into some sweats. Then she ran through to the kitchen to help Quinn chop vegetables and boil pasta.

Fifteen minutes or so later Puck burst into the kitchen. "Hello, my lovely ladies." He gave Beth a hug and a kiss on the cheek and then kissed his wife on the lips.

"Ew," Beth averted her eyes with a hand as Puck and Quinn giggled, but their daughter had a smile on her face.

Over spaghetti they caught each other up, despite the fact that they'd seen each other recently a lot seemed to have happened. Quinn talked about the baby, and the epic cheerleading sectionals routine she was planning, Puck tried to explain to Beth for about the hundredth time how tackling a ball off of someone could be fun (she loved competitive cheerleading but violence just wasn't her thing) and what they'd talked about at the meeting at Ohio State, the college he worked at- he was the football coach, it was an hour and forty minutes away from their house but Puck loved the job, and Beth told both of them about Glee Club restarting (she hadn't got round to it on Monday) and that Marley was the new director.

"She and my brother didn't tell me!" Puck declared, looking at Quinn with accusation but they hadn't told her either. "Strange, I guess they wanted to surprise us."

"I sure am surprised." Quinn twirled a piece of spaghetti on her fork. "I mean, Glee club ended a few years after Beth was born. You'd think someone would have restarted it a while ago if they were going to." Beth nodded her agreement.

"So who else auditioned?" Puck asked. "Anyone we know?"

Beth tried to recall who else auditioned apart from her friends but she couldn't remember the names of the others. "Aisha, Aria and some of her friends; Danny Schuester, Natalia and Liam. Maeve, I can't remember if there was anyone else." She didn't mention the rude fake names.

Puck looked thoughtful. "Well, you're already doing better than the New Directions when they started, number wise- wait, Aria?!"

"Yeah," Beth responded. "I know! But she's really good, she looked like a real rockstar!- she just has some self-confidence issues."

Quinn nodded. "The quiet ones always are." Beth told them about Aria's hair streak and her more rebellious attitude and they both just shrugged it off.

"Are you not telling me something?" Beth asked as they exchanged a look.

"Puck was rebellious, well, all his life," Quinn said and Beth nodded, many a time she'd laughed over her birth father's ridiculous high school and college hairstyle. "But I had a rebellious month or two, too."

Beth leant forwards on the table, excited. "Tell!"

"No," Quinn shook her head but Puck leant across his wife and whispered to his birth daughter,

"She dyed her hair pink, joined a gang, got a Ryan Seacrest tattoo and set a purple piano on fire." Beth giggled at that last one especially.

Puck drove her home a little after dinner, and she told her mom Shelby the story of her day all over again.

 _ **Songs featured: Simple Plan- Welcome To My Life (Aisha Abdi)**_

 _ **The Jackson Five- Want You Back (Aria Berry)**_

 _ **Next Time: The kids get their first assignment and have to perform in front of the whole school to try and gain some more members.**_


	4. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3:**_

 _ **AN: I finally finished school for the summer yay! Anyway, enjoy this chapter- the drama and romance element will start to appear more in the next few chapters. I know this chapter's a bit shorter than usual but the next one's about 3700 again!**_

 _ **Review/fave/follow for a virtual brownie ;)**_

 _ **Previously on The New New Directions:**_ _ **The kids auditioned for Glee Club, Aria and Rachel had an argument about Finn and singing, and Beth, Quinn and Puck had some family time.**_

Marley had accepted mostly everyone who auditioned for the Glee Club, and the first meeting was on Monday. She had been in LA with her husband Jake for the past few years working on their careers, her as a recording artist and him as a dancer, while also raising their twins Jasmine and Matt. But Marley had always wanted to do something, bigger. Something like Mr Schue had done. So they came back home, and she argued with the chair of the school board until he finally agreed that she could take over the club, with a limited budget. That was okay though, her two albums had sold well and she had a lot of money to make up anything that wasn't covered by the school's budget. Although, she did need to get enough kids to even be able to compete. So far she had seven: her niece Beth, Beth's friend Aisha, Rachel's daughter Aria, Mr and Mrs Schuester's son Daniel, their friends Liam and Natalia, and Finn and Kurt's sister Maeve. That was a good start though, and Marley was determined that it would all work out.

She walked into the choir room confidently, re-introduced herself to those who didn't know her, saying they should call her Marley, and tried her best to hide the fact that she was scared. The principal had also told her that if she got the club to Nationals to represent the school then McKinley would fund it, otherwise they'd have to disband it again. She wasn't going to tell the kids that though, at least not yet, she didn't want to scare them away. Glee had always been a place for fun and joy, and she wasn't going to ruin that.

"I know it might not seem like there's many of you, but this Glee Club has started with a lot worse." Marley said. She took a pen from beside the board as Mr Schue and Finn had done before her. Then she wrote on, New Beginnings. "This is a fresh start for our show choir, with a new generation," Marley explained. "And I think if we all work hard, and have fun, it's going to be an amazing experience and journey for all of us." All of the kids looked pretty excited, although Aria was trying to hide her enthusiasm. "I want you all to sing songs about new beginnings, because that's what this is for us."

"Hey Aisha," Aisha heard Beth's voice behind her. She turned around to see the blonde jogging up to her. "Want to sing a duet in Glee Club?"

Aisha glanced around self-consciously but no-one had heard them talking about singing together.

"Aish," Beth said. "Seriously, no-one cares one if we're in Glee Club. It doesn't make us any less awesome." She linked her arm through her best friend's. "In fact it makes us more awesome for going for what we want." Aisha bit her lip, but agreed, on condition that they didn't sing a love song, she was tired of those. "Sure!" Beth hugged her and then darted through the doorway to her next class.

Beth could make her do anything with those hazel eyes and that pout, she would really be the death of her.

At the end of that day it was Glee Club again. Beth and Aisha were the first ones there, after Beth had pulled her best friend out of her seat the moment the bell rang at the end of the day. She told Marley that they wanted to sing, gave the band members the music that she had printed out at lunch, while Aisha pulled out two stools. She could tell that Beth was really excited, and she was partially too, but she was also a little worried.

"Alright everyone," Marley said once the others had arrived. "We have a few volunteers for today, first up…. Beth and Aisha!"

Beth gave Aisha a comforting smile and then started to sing an acoustic version of the Taylor Swift song, Aisha kept eye contact with Beth the whole time, as they smiled at each other.

 _ **Beth: So we've been outnumbered  
Raided and now cornered  
It's hard to fight when the fight ain't fair  
Aisha: You can walk away, say we don't need this  
Beth: But there's something in your eyes  
Says we can beat this**_

 ** _Beth and Aisha: 'cause these things will change_**  
 ** _Can you feel it now?_**  
 ** _These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down_**  
 ** _This revolution, the time will come_**  
 ** _For us to finally win_**  
 ** _And we'll sing hallelujah, we'll sing hallelujah_**

The other members of the Glee Club clapped whilst the two cheerleaders hugged.

"Well done girls," Marley said. "That was amazing!" Beth and Aisha sat back down with the others. "Any other volunteers?"

* * *

At the end of the week everyone had performed and when the Glee kids came into the choir room, 'New Beginnings' was wiped off the board.

Marley walked in and came to the front of the room. "We've had a great first week. I've seen that you are all very talented kids and I know that's going to attract some more people. What do you say to perform at the assembly next Friday to attract more people who want their voices heard, but were too scared to try out?"

The kids all glanced at each other. "Are you sure that's a good idea Marley?" Maeve asked. "The other kids at this school aren't exactly supportive, and we haven't had much experience."

Marley looked at them all. "Hasn't this week taught you guys that we need to throw ourselves out there, besides, this IS our experience."

Danny shrugged, "I'm in." Natalia looked at him. It was unlike him to go for something like this straight away.

"Me too," Aria said decidedly.

Natalia wasn't convinced. "Do you two really think this is a good idea?" She asked her friends. In her experience, it was best not to wake the sleeping giant.

Danny stood up. "Guys, we can't be scared all our lives. And anyway, we have each other."

Liam nodded. "I'm in." Maeve agreed too. Everyone was looking at Natalia.

"Okay fine!" She relented. Danny was right. Friends were what had helped her get through her mess of a life. At her old middle school, she'd been the target of racism because of her Mexican immigrant status, but when she'd transferred to Lima, she had found friends in Liam, Aria and Danny. They had defended her from bullies and made her feel like she finally belonged somewhere. Now it was her time to return the favour.

* * *

As the seven member show choir waited to perform, Aria headed over to her best friend.

"That- being the first one to say you wanted to perform- was really brave Danny," She said, sitting down on the floor beside him where he was tying the laces of his dance shoes.

He looked up at her and cracked a smile. "Someone had to do it, otherwise this club would have been over already, if we could never get up the nerve to perform."

Aria nodded her agreement. "I never told you about what happened that day at my house after we signed up for Glee Club, what happened between my mom and I after you left I mean."

"Ar, you don't have to do that-" Danny started but Aria interrupted.

"I want to tell you," She said. "You're my best friend." She rested her head on his shoulder and started to talk.

"After you went downstairs my mom didn't say anything for a long time." Aria continued. "She sat down on my bed, and turned her head away from me, and I didn't know what to do. I knew it had been really wrong and horrible of me to say what I did about not doing it for my dad's memory, I knew that was cruel, and completely untrue. So I sat down next to her and I kept apologising and saying how sorry I was, but then I heard this little noise, and I could tell she was trying to keep that she was crying away from me. So I stopped talking, and I lay across her lap like I used to do when I was younger and it was just me and her and she'd tell me these stories about a tall, goofy, brave guy, and I asked her to tell me a story." A tear slid down Aria's cheek and she brushed it away before Danny could see, then stood up. "It must be almost time to perform." She looked up at the ceiling, imagining through the roof where the star would be that her dad had named 'Finn Hudson' as a present for her mom to remind her that he would always be looking down on her. "Wish me luck daddy," She whispered.

* * *

Sam was standing on the bleachers during the assembly. As they waited for the Glee Club to perform, a brunette girl came down the lines, handing out flyers that read 'Geek Club Stinks! Share the Hate!' It was painted over the original poster reading 'Glee Club Rules! Share the Love!'

Sam grabbed the posters from all the people around him and shoved them in the trash. He didn't teach her, but there was only one person that girl could be, Robin Sylvester. She was famous around the school for her bad attitude and hatred for the arts- Sue Sylvester re-incarnated basically. Made sense, she was her daughter.

"Students," Said the principal. "Today we have a treat for you." She didn't seem to want to say the words, probably because she was a Sue Sylvester supporter and thought that the arts weren't important. "The New Directions," She said and then took her seat next to Sam.

There were seven red and blue clad kids (just like the Don't Stop Believing outfits) on the stage, standing in a line in the dark. Slowly a spotlight shone down and Beth walked forwards holding a microphone as the others ooh-ed and aah-ed.

 _ **Beth: I think it's so cute and I think it's so sweet**_

 _ **How you let your friends encourage you to try and talk to me**_

 _ **But let me stop you there, oh, before you speak**_

The student body were all muttering, and it wasn't helping at all. "Shut up," Sam hissed at his football jocks around him. Beth stayed where she was, but now Aria came forward too.

 _ **Aria: Nah to the ah to the no, no, no**_

There was still a lot of talking but the New Directions kept going with their singing and planned dance routine.

 _ **New Directions: My name is no**_

 _ **My sign is no**_

 _ **My number is no**_

 _ **You need to let it go**_

 _ **You need to let it go**_

 _ **Need to let it go**_

 _ **Nah to the ah to the no, no, no**_

At that point, Robin Sylvester was screaming at the top of her voice- "No to YOU!" and many others joined the chant. The Glee Club members looked shocked at what to do but they were still singing, then Robin smashed the fire alarm and everyone ran outside, leaving the glee club kids, Marley, Sam, Quinn and the principal as the only ones left in the room, getting sprayed by water.

The principal gave Marley an 'I told you do' look and then she ran out of the door behind all the students, shouting after them to calm down.

Sam looked from Quinn and Marley to the kids. They all looked broken-hearted.

Marley stepped onto the stage. "Guys, this is not the end. It was just the worst possible outcome, which means we can only go up!"

Just then, an Asian boy with black hair and an all American looking blond boy came over.

"Mrs Puckerman," The blond one said. "I'm Lucas,"

"And I'm his friend Dylan," Said the black haired boy. "We were wondering if we could try out for the Glee Club?"

At this moment a scared looking boy with brown hair in a Bieber circa 2009 haircut approached. "Hi I'm Kieran Bieste." He said. "Can I try out for Glee Club?"

Everyone looked over at that with excited, albeit confused, expressions on their faces. The boys tried out right there, and all three were great, so Marley happily accepted them. Sam grinned, things were looking up for the New Directions.

* * *

Laughing, Liam ate a brownie from the plate for guessing first. He and his friends were having a sleepover at Danny's house, and they were playing a game where they impersonated people, they had just done the principal of the school, trying to make a joke out of the situation they were in.

"Okay, it's my go now," Liam said. He stood up, did a loser sign, and pulled a disgust face. "GEEK Club sucks!"

"Robin," All three of his friends said at the same time. They all took a brownie, though Danny said he was full and put it back a moment later.

Natalia groaned. "Seriously though, why does she hate the Glee Club so much?"

"My parents said that her mom was the cheerleading coach, and she spent six years trying to destroy the New Directions," Danny explained. "And then when she finally did, she retired."

Aria rolled her eyes. "Lame." The others looked at her confused. "Who would waste over half a decade of their life trying to destroy a high school club? LAME." She said again.

Just then Danny's mom came into the living room, with gloves on and holding a dustpan and brush. "You guys didn't spill anything that stains did you?"

Aria looked over her shoulder and smiled. "No Mrs Schue, we tried not to."

"Yeah, don't worry about it Mrs Schue," Liam added, taking the dustpan and brush from her. "We'll clean up when we're done ourselves."

Emma opened her mouth to say something when there was a crash. Danny's sister Eleanor wandered into the living room and with her eyes glued to her phone drawled "Mom I knocked over that vase in the kitchen-"

Mrs Schuester looked at her. "The priceless one?"

Eleanor shrugged at her mother, who hurried into the kitchen. Danny raised his eyebrows at his sister but she headed up the stairs, her eyes still on her phone.

 _ **Next Time: The Lopez-Pierce kids arrive in town and there's a kiss for two main/major characters.**_

 _ **Songs Featured: Taylor Swift- Change (Beth and Aisha)**_

 _ **Meghan Trainor- No (New Directions)**_


	5. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4:**_

 _ **AN: Please review so I know whether you guys are enjoying this, and if anyone's reading it!**_

 _ **Sorry if any of the Spanish translations are wrong, I used google translate.**_

 _ **Previously on:**_ _ **The New New Directions:**_ _ **The kids got their first assignment and performed in front of the school, which didn't go well at first- but it turned out three more boys said they wanted to audition.**_

The Glee Club had ten members now, but they still needed at least another two more to be able to compete. Sectionals was fast approaching and they were running out of ideas for how to get new members. Kieran, the dark haired boy who was the adopted son of the football recruiter Sheldon Bieste raised his hand.

"Yes Kieran?" Marley said.

"I've been trying to convince my sister Maya to try out. She has a great voice, but she still thinks the club is lame."

"You keep working on her," Marley bit her lip, looking worried. "Anyone else have friends or siblings we can convince to join?" There was a silence for a minute and then Beth turned to Aisha.

"No."

"Oh come on!" Beth said.

"No what?" Marley asked.

Aisha glared at Beth. "I am not asking Adam to join Glee Club, Bethany."

"But he's your boyfriend!" Beth said. "He'll join if you ask him too!" She was pouting, shooting Aisha puppy dog eyes. No matter how much she tried, Aisha couldn't tear her eyes away. She should have been fishing for an excuse, anything at all, but Beth's eyes were so close to hers. She could see the mix of wild green, entrancing brown and unusual amber in them, could have easily reached across and put her lips against Beth's. "Please!" Aisha snapped out of it, but she'd forgotten completely what they'd been talking about. It took a long glance around the hopeful faces in the room to remember what was going on- right, Beth wanted Aisha's boyfriend in Glee Club. No way. Adam was nice enough but he was basically a trophy boyfriend, one that would surely turn on her if she asked him something like this, she was kind of shocked he hadn't already.

"I can't." Everyone turned away and disappointment was clear on Beth's face. Aisha flushed red from embarrassment and stared at the floor whilst Marley suggested other things to do to get members. From a car wash to a sing-a-thon; it wasn't looking good.

At the end of the Glee Club meeting Beth and Aisha left the room, Aria a little way behind them talking to her friends. The two older girls walked without talking and the ride home was silent until Aisha started playing an old Troye Sivan album on shuffle and cranked up the volume.

 _ **Trying hard not to fall**_

 _ **On the way home**_

 _ **You were trying to wear me down (down)**_

Aria said goodbye as she climbed out of the back seat when they reached her house. She hurried away from the awkwardness and was inside the door in seconds. As soon was the door shut Beth turned to Aisha, undoing her seatbelt to imply they were staying here until she got some answers. Aisha followed suite. "Did I do something to upset you?"

Her mouth opening and closing without making any noise, Aisha shook her head. When she did manage to speak her voice cracked. "You could never."

 _ **Kissing up on fences**_

 _ **And up on walls**_

 _ **On the way home**_

 _ **I guess it's all working out, now**_

Beth frowned, saying softly, "Then why did you answer me so snappily about Adam?"

"I don't want to talk about Adam right now… or about what the consequences would be if I asked him something like that."

' _ **Cause there's still too long to the weekend**_

 _ **Too long till I drown in your hands**_

 _ **Too long since I've been a fool**_

The sun was on its way down and the sky was laced with pink and orange and blue, it was beautiful. "When you leave high school, when you leave this small town, you'll regret the things you couldn't gather the bravery to do." Beth said, turning her head to look straight at Aisha.

Impulsively, suddenly, probably stupidly, Aisha leant forward and it could have been a trick of the twilight, but Beth seemed to as well. Their lips collided like crashing stars, burning up.

 _ **Leave this blue neighbourhood**_

 _ **Never knew loving could hurt this good**_

 _ **And it drives me wild**_

Aisha felt Beth's hands in her hair, pulling it out of its tight ponytail, ravaging it. She clawed against Beth's back though the other girl didn't seem to feel any pain as Aisha continued to kiss her lips with a hungry urgency. Aisha didn't register the mom down the road rolling her eyes and shielding her son's view from the kissing teenagers. She didn't register the pounding music anymore. She didn't register that they were outside Beth's sister's house. All she knew was that she was kissing Beth Corcoran. And Beth was kissing back.

 _ **Cause when you look like that**_

 _ **I've never ever wanted to be so bad, oh**_

 _ **And it drives me wild**_

 _ **You're driving me wild, wild, wild, oh!**_

* * *

Danny got off the bus a few stops before usual after a text from his dad saying he was just around the corner and could give him a lift. Things had been looking up for him bus-wise recently, but still, a ride was definitely preferable. He'd just gotten off when a force from behind pushed him and Danny found himself on the floor, his knees cut and bleeding. The bus driver was paying no attention and, after letting off a couple more people, drove off. Behind Danny was stood the person that hated him the most in the entire world; Jack Griffin, and around him his cronies. Jack towered over Danny and must be in his twenties but was still a high school senior. He had no reason to hate him, he just did, and Danny had been an idiot in forgetting that this was his stop. "You changing neighbourhoods Schuester?"

"My dad's giving me a lift," Danny said, staring at the floor as Jack hauled him to his feet and held him by the shirt.

"Does wickle babyface need Daddy's help for everyfwing?" Jack's cronies laughed and joined in on the taunting but Danny just blocked them all out as he stared at the wall Jack was probably going to knock him against after he'd finished wrestling him to the ground. A siren pierced through the mumbling noise and Jack shoved Danny against the wall he'd been staring at, shouting at his friends to get out of there. With them gone Danny let the tears fall down his face, words crashing through his mind of everything they'd called him. Weak, stupid, baby. He remembered his dad's proud face at him joining Glee Club, how would he feel about a son who couldn't even defend himself? Oh God, his dad. He'd be here any minute, he couldn't let his dad see him like this. Liam's house was near here, Danny could get there in ten minutes if he walked fast. With that thought he took off speedily, managing to dodge his dad.

When Danny finally arrived at Liam's house there was a moving van outside of the house next door and four kids surrounding two laughing women. The family had been in LA for all of Danny's lifetime because of their parents' showbiz jobs. It would have to be today that they moved back to Lima. He ducked around the hedge to hide but someone had spotted him.

"Danny?" Shouted Jackson, who they all called Jax, Lopez-Pierce. With that, the others turned around too and Danny stepped away from the hedge.

"What are you guys doing here?

* * *

While Kaelynn's mom Brittany phoned up her two ex-teachers her mamá Santana asked Danny to tell her who'd done this to his face so she could go "all Lima Heights on their sorry a-behinds", whatever that meant. "Mamá tranquilízate" (Mom, calm down), Kaelynn's older brother Asher said in Spanish, they had grown up in a bilingual household and could speak both Spanish and English equally. "Usted Jax y Dane está asustando."(You're scaring Jax and Dane.) Kaelynn glanced over at her two younger brothers. Jax was pulling that constipated looking face he had on when he insisted on watching an R rated horror movie that Kaelynn and Asher had snuck into the older boy's room. Dane meanwhile was holding his sister's leg. She ruffled his hair.

"Mamá's just worried about Danny," She told Dane and he nodded, looking at Santana.

"Lo siento chicos," (Sorry boys), she said and gave them both a quick hug before turning back to Danny. They'd cleaned off the blood from his face and put band-aids on the cuts on his legs but he still looked distraught.

Danny said, "Aunt Santana, please don't tell my parents about this."

Santana shook her head. "I can't do that. Britt's already on the phone to your dad. Why don't you want them to know?"

Guiding her brothers gently away so that their mamá could talk to Danny but they could still hear, Kaelynn frowned as Danny hung his head and said, "I'm so ashamed," a single tear sliding down his face. Not that her mamá was unemotional, but despite being adopted Kaelynn was often told by people who'd known her parents when they were younger that she looked like Santana but was personality-wise more like Brittany. She felt terrible for Danny right then and wanted to give him a huge hug, and could see her mom walking over, having finished the phone call, looking a very similar way.

"They are the one that should feel ashamed, never you," Santana told Danny, putting a comforting hand on his cheek. "I used to be a bully myself and let me tell you, it usually comes from a place of fear of jealousy."

"I don't think this is either of those things."

Brittany looked at her four kids and smirked. "Let's go unpack." The three boys groaned and Kaelynn rolled her eyes. It was no fun being the middle kid AND the only girl sometimes, but at least she had her moms!

* * *

Beth stared at her reflection in the mirror for a good five minutes before she went inside, trying to push down her hair and correct her smudged makeup while her thoughts ran wild. Where had that come from? She didn't even know she felt anything for Aisha but she'd leant into her and kissed her…and kissed her…and kissed her. Aisha was only the second girl Beth had ever kissed (the first had been last year at summer camp, which was when Beth had decided she was bisexual) but it was even more amazing than the first. For a couple of seconds it had felt weird to kiss her best friend but quickly it stopped feeling like that and started feeling, for lack of a better word, epic. How long had Aisha liked her? –Wait, was that even how she felt? Maybe it was just a spur of the moment thing. Would she want to date? Beth had never thought of her best friend in a romantic way before but that afternoon had been like a gateway opening up so many possibilities. The thought of kissing Aisha again made her head spin and her heart reel. Buzzing, Beth grabbed her red and white WMHS cheer bag and headed inside. Her joyful mood dropped when she saw her mom.

Shelby was sitting on a stool at the counter in the kitchen with a look of panic in her eyes. When her eyes landed on her daughter she breathed out. "She's back… thanks Quinn." After hanging up Shelby started dialling again. Beth opened her mouth to say something but her mom held out a hand. "Wait there," She ordered and then spoke into the phone. "She's here now Rachel…okay, see you soon."

"Mom, did you call the police to come find me? I'm like twenty minutes late!" Beth said.

Pointing at the clock on the wall, Shelby raised an eyebrow. "You're TWO HOURS late." She sighed and hurried forwards to hug her daughter. "I was worried something had happened to you."

"I was with Aisha," Beth said into her mom's shoulder. "I'm sorry if I upset you."

Shelby stroked a strand of Beth's blonde hair and then looked into her eyes. "You aren't my little Bethy-boo anymore, but until June, when you will legally be an adult, at least text if you're going to be home late so I DON'T end up calling everyone we know in panic mode. Deal?" Beth tipped her head and smiled.

"Deal."

* * *

"Thanks Santana, Brittany," Danny's dad said. "It's great that you're back."

Santana smiled, she'd told him what Danny had said to her, and he had let her, convinced by what Santana had told him that maybe it was the right thing to do. "Thanks Mr Schue, it's good to see you too."

"We should have a Glee reunion soon!" Brittany added excitedly.

Will nodded. "Sounds good. I'd better be going but thanks again." He and Danny went out to the car in silence and when they were inside Will said, "I'm sorry."

Danny looked up in astonishment. He was the one that should be saying sorry. He was the disappointment. "For what?" Was all he said, weakly.

"Failing you. I should have known something was going on. You've been acting different lately, I just chalked it up to puberty, I guess." Despite the situation, Danny felt himself blushing a little at the p word- awkward. "I think we should go to the principal, though in my experience that doesn't seem to do much help if you have no proof. It's worth a try though. What do you think?"

Danny hadn't imagined the conversation going like this at all. He'd imagined anger, frustration, definitely not his dad wanting them to work together to solve the problem. "I want to learn some self-defence, so I can protect myself if this happens again," He said a lot stronger than he thought he would have.

"Okay," Will put his hand on Danny's briefly and then started the car. "Oh and Danny,"

"Yeah, dad?"

"If you ever get any messages, save them and tell me. If anyone hurts my son in any way they deserve to suffer the consequences and saving the messages will help us towards that." Danny's dad looked at him as he came to slow at the traffic lights. "I love you Danny."

* * *

The next morning when Aria got into Beth's car Aisha wasn't there. She slid into the front seat instead of the usual backseat and looked at Beth, who looked a little more made up than usual. "Where's Aisha?" Asked Aria.

"No idea," Beth replied, pulling out of the driveway. "She wasn't outside her house when I went to pick her up. I went up to the doorbell but her mom said she got the bus."

"The bus?" Aria said, confused. The public school bus wasn't something you went on if you could avoid it.

Beth nodded. "I hope she isn't avoiding me."

"Why would she be avoiding you?" Aria questioned. "Are you guys still fighting?"

"Oh, um, no."

Weird, she stammered a little. Aria looked towards her suspiciously, but Beth was staring at the road ahead. It was annoying Danny was so far out of the way otherwise they could have picked him up instead, this car ride had gotten suddenly awkward since she'd asked about Aisha. Danny always knew what to say that would make her laugh. When the two girls got to school they started up the stairs when Aria saw a shiny sports car, and out of it came two of the most beautiful teens ever, Asher and Kaelynn Lopez-Pierce! Aria pulled Beth over with her, waving at the siblings.

"What are you guys doing here?" She exclaimed. "How come we had no idea this was happening?"

Asher shrugged. "Surprise," He said. Aria had always thought Asher was handsome, he was way out of her league though, being a senior and all. He'd been adopted by Santana and Brittany when he was four years old and then his sister Kaelynn had been adopted a couple of years later, followed by their two younger brothers Jax and Dane. They'd lived in LA since joining the family and had been friends with some of the other members of the original Glee Club's children who lived in LA. Kaelynn explained how Jax had 'gone out' with Artie and Kitty's daughter Abi and the older kids all burst out laughing. Aria laughed too. She thought it was stupid people going out when they were young. She hadn't had a boyfriend yet and didn't have her eye on anyone either. Although it was annoying when people made fun of her for not having had a boyfriend let alone a first kiss yet, she knew that it would be okay because she was holding out for someone she really liked, not just anyone to get it over with.

"You guys should audition for the Glee Club," Said Aria.

Asher turned his blue eyes to her. "Mom and Mamá were talking about that last night. What is it?"

"Singing and dancing. We need twelve members to compete and if you guys join that'll be twelve…so no pressure." Beth seemed distracted, looking around but she nodded.

Kaelynn grinned infectiously. "Cool, I'm totally in! Ash?"

"Same." Aria grinned and so did Beth.

"Thank you guys so much," Beth hugged them both. "Everyone's gonna be so happy." She spotted something- or someone- in the distance. Aria couldn't see what it was. "Uh, you guys, I, Ar, can you take them to get their, um, y'know…timetables?"

"Sure," Aria said, leading the siblings up the steps and into the school as Beth hurried off in the opposite direction.

"Aisha!" At hearing her name, Aisha sped up, and darted into a group of moving jocks and cheerleaders. That did no good. Beth was fast and on her quickly, grabbing her arm.

"Beth, let go," Aisha said quietly, looking to the floor at the side of her.

"Aisha," Beth said, desperation in her voice. "Aisha, look at me!" Aisha glanced up and Beth spoke fast while she had the opportunity, still holding Aisha's arms, though loosely now she had her attention. "Look you don't have to be ashamed or upset or anything Aish. I didn't expect you to do that yesterday, but _I feel the same way._ "

"Beth,"

"I want to be with you." Aisha glanced around, but no-one was paying any attention to the two of them. "I loved kissing you."

"Shut up!" Aisha snapped and Beth's face fell. "It's not all about you, Beth."

Understanding dawned on Beth's face. "I'm so sorry, I forgot about your parents. Look, I know they're really traditional religious and they don't agree with this, but surely they want the best for you, surely they want you to be happy."

"Beth,"

"I know you felt as happy as I did yesterday," Beth continued, rambling. "I've never seen you that happy with Adam. Please give me a chance Aish. We don't have to tell your parents until you're ready and I'll be right there with you when you tell them, if that's what you want." The five minute warning bell went and Aisha pulled away without saying anything, heading up the stairs to home room as fast as she could, forgetting Beth would be there.

* * *

After showing the Lopez-Pierces to the office to get their timetables and a brief tour, Aria went to homeroom. Danny was already there. She dropped into the seat beside his. He'd obviously been deep in thought and he practically fell out of his seat when she said hi. "Anything new?" Aria asked.

Danny looked around but everyone was absorbed in their own conversations. Natalia and Liam were debating about something rather loudly, covering Danny and Aria's voices. "There's this guy that's been harassing me."

"Oh my gosh are you okay?" Aria hugged him then pulled away and looked at him. "You can always tell me anything. That's what best friends are for."

"I'm fine," Danny said. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was scared. Anyway, he really hurt me yesterday and I started going to Liam's but then next door the Lopez-Pierce's had just moved in and they saw me. They phoned my dad, but he was really good about it." Aria smiled, knowing how much Danny worried about letting his dad down. "We've got an appointment with the principal this afternoon and I want to start taking self-defence classes together."

They always did things together, Aria smiled. "Are you asking if I wanna kick people's asses with you?"

Danny laughed. "DEfence not OFfence Ar." Aria laughed in return and Liam and Nat looked over, wondering what was going on.

* * *

Asher stood in front of the excited faces the next afternoon. They all clapped happily as he finished singing and he grinned too. This room was full of energy and it made Asher happy that he and his sister were the reason for it. Marley came to the front of the room. "Everyone… we now have TWELVE MEMBERS!" Everyone cheered, everyone except Beth and Aisha. Beth was staring at Aisha, and Aisha was staring at the blackboard. "Okay guys, calm down!" Marley laughed. "For each stage every year at competitions there's a theme. The theme for this Sectionals is 'bounce back'." She explained, writing the words on the board, "I know the first few weeks of this school year have been tough but everything's looking up, don't you think?" Everyone nodded, again except the two girls. "Let's try this," She said, handing out some sheet music for It's My Life by Bon Jovi. "Beth, Aisha, would you guys mind leading this one." They nodded and stood up, the others following suite as Marley nodded to the band.

 _ **Beth and Aisha: This ain't a song for the broken-hearted**_

 _ **No silent prayer for the faith-departed**_

 _ **I ain't gonna be just a face-**_

Aisha broke off and Beth did just after her as their eyes met. The band stopped too, looking towards the two of them. The Indian-American girl was clenching her fists at her sides. "I-" Aisha suddenly took off, Beth running after her.

 _ **Next Time: Aria and Danny start self-defence classes, Beth and Aisha talk and the Glee Club has a mashup competition.**_

 _ **Songs featured: Wild- Troye Sivan (radio)**_

 _ **It's My Life- Bon Jovi (Beth &Aisha)**_


	6. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5:**_

 _ **AN: Thanks to everyone who has supported this story so far, I hope you enjoy the chapter :)**_

 _ **Previously on The New New Directions:**_ _ **Beth and Aisha kissed but Aisha doesn't want her parents to know, the Lopez-Pierces moved to Lima and found out about Danny getting bullied- telling Will. Kaelynn and Asher joined Glee Club- making up the numbers to twelve!**_

Beth ran as fast as she could but it was no use, she couldn't see where Aisha had gone. Sighing she turned and started to walk back to the choir room but she paused outside the girls' bathroom. She couldn't be sure, but had that been muffled crying? Beth pushed open the door and headed inside. As soon as Beth opened the door the crying stopped. "Aisha?" One door was locked. Beth peered underneath and saw Aisha's white cheerleading shoes. "I'll wait," She declared, leaning back against the sink. A long sixty seconds past before there was a shuffling noise and Aisha emerged from the stall. She'd clearly been trying to wipe her eyes and hide the fact that she'd been crying. Beth jerked upwards immediately. "Aish?" Her best friend moved as far away from her as possible, down to the other end of the sinks, and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Slowly, Beth inched closer and when Aisha didn't make any objection she came to a stop behind her, looking into the mirror too. Aisha looked down. "Why won't you look at me?"

There was a long silence. Beth was ready to interrupt it when Aisha's voice cut through it like a knife. "Because if I look at you I won't be able to stop myself from grabbing you and kissing you right here against the sink."

"Why would that be such a bad thing?"

"You don't understand!" Aisha declared, still not looking at her.

"I feel something for you and you feel something for me." Beth's voice ached with agony. She wanted this to be over. "What more is there to understand?" Gently, she took Aisha's hand and spun her around, holding her gaze. "Tell me you don't feel anything for me and I promise I'll drop this." Aisha said nothing and Beth took her hand and guided it to her own neck, to measure her pulse, it was racing. "Feel that?"" Beth said softly. "That's how I feel." Aisha was staring at her now. Beth put her hand on her heart. "That's how you make me feel." Biting her lip, Aisha dropped her hand and Beth leant forward, whispering, "you can tell me to stop whenever you want." She pressed her lips against Aisha's softly. This was nothing like their last kiss; fire and passion. This was comfort, the calm after the storm. Beth started to pull back but Aisha wrapped her arms around the back of the blonde's neck, pulling her back, and kissed her back, not more harshly than Beth's kiss, but more confident. Then she dropped her arms a little lower and put her face in Beth's shoulder as the blonde girl held her, whispering that everything would be okay into her ear.

* * *

"So there's nothing you can do?" Will tapped his fingers on the side of his chair, which Danny knew was a sign of his stress. Danny sank further into his chair, running a hand through his brown hair.

The principal shook her head. "I'm sorry Sir, but with no proof there's nothing I or the school board can do but continue to discourage bullying."

Danny slipped his hand into his pocket, feeling his phone there. He held it for a moment, his head racing. Should he do it? Yes. His other hand fisted. Daniel Schuester was done being pushed around and he definitely wasn't going to let Jack Griffin hurt anyone he cared about. Taking a deep breath, Danny pulled out his phone. "Ms Blue," He said, his voice trembling and his hand unsteady as he typed in the passcode, clicked on to messages, and a number he hadn't recognised. The two adults turned to him. "I do have proof." He passed the phone to his principal. She read the message and showed it to Danny's dad.

 _My brother heard u talking 2 ur girlfriend Schuester. Rat me out 2 anyone and itll b her tht gets the Griffin treatment nxt_

"Thank you Daniel," Ms Blue said. "We take bullying very seriously here at McKinley and you've helped us make these halls safer."

"So he's getting expelled?" Will asked.

Ms Blue nodded. "Well, if it is his number. We'll check that first and then we'll call him and his parents in. If it hadn't turned violent we would have given Mr Griffin a chance but we have a zero tolerance policy for violence, and he already has two recorded incidences of it."

"Thank you," Said Will. He handed Danny back his phone and the two of them said goodbye to the principal. "Was that the first online message?" Danny shook his head. His dad stopped and hugged him. "Everything's going to be okay." He promised. Danny nodded, a little surprised at the strength of the hug but he hugged back.

* * *

The next week the Glee Club were continuing to prep for Sectionals, and the cheer squad was prepping for their Sectionals too. Marley was asking them if they had any new ideas as they had he first two songs they wanted to do decided but they couldn't choose a third one. Kurt's sister Maeve suggested a mashup. Everyone liked this idea, but what mashup should they do that was appropriate to the theme of bouncing back? Marley grinned, "I think it's time to bring back an old Glee tradition." Kaelynn cast a confused glance at the other Glee club members but they shrugged. Their teacher grabbed a pen and wrote on the board 'Mash-Up'. "I'm gonna divide you into two teams and you have to come up with a mash-up and perform it at the end of the week in either this room or the auditorium, you can choose. The mash-up has to be on the theme of bouncing back. Whichever team wins the competition, we'll sing their mash-up at Sectionals." Marley split them up; Beth, Maeve, Kaelynn, Liam, Danny and Lucas, and Aisha, Asher, Aria, Natalia, Dylan and Kieran. Aria grinned, competition was one of her favourite words. She linked arms with Natalia in a joking way and pulled her friend over to the others. Their team decided to take the auditorium while Danny's team stayed in the choir room. The six teenagers sat on the stage to talk about ideas for songs to mashup, but they had conflicting tastes. Aisha and Asher wanted to sing pop, Dylan, Aria and Nat wanted to sing something more alternative. Kieran wanted to sing Broadway. They were all scrolling through lyrics on their phones or tablets when Kieran had an idea.

"What about the move version of 'Fame'?" He said. "It's more poppy than the original Broadway song but still a Broadway song." Everyone nodded and Kieran looked pleased with himself. Aria smirked.

"What about Centuries by Fall Out Boy?" Aria added. "It isn't exactly an obvious choice, but I've always interpreted it as being about the struggles of fame and pushing through it." Natalia and Dylan both said they loved the song, then looked at each other. Aria rolled her eyes. Aisha brought up the lyrics to the movie version of Fame on her tablet and Asher did the same for Centuries. Aria started mashing the lyrics together on her phone to what they were all saying, making lots of adjustments as someone said to put this line here then someone else said it didn't fit, try that. Eventually they got there, as Marley came through to tell them to come back to the choir room and grab their stuff as it was time to go home.

* * *

"And then we decided to just be basic and do Fighter by Christina Aguilera and Stronger by Britney Spears," Danny laughed. The two best friends were walking to their first self-defence lesson after having changed into fitness stuff after Glee Club. Aria had suggested he invite Liam and Nat too but Danny had said that the lessons were only one on one usually but the instructor had agreed to take them both at the same time. "What did you guys decide to do?"

Aria cocked an eyebrow. "You'll just have to wait and see Daniel."

Rolling his eyes, Danny said, "Seriously? I just told you my team's song choices remember? It's not like I'm gonna copy you!"

"Fine!" She said as she started to tie her streaked hair up into a messy bun, until she saw Danny freeze. "What's up? She followed his gaze and saw Jack Griffin across the road with his dad. His dad was yelling at him as he pushed him into the car and Jack glared at Danny until he was no longer in sight. "I wonder what that was-"

"He's the bully!" Danny said. Aria reached across and took his hand. She felt terrible that Danny had had to go through all that alone and she only wished he'd shared the burden with her, but she got why he hadn't. "I got him expelled and I feel terrible."

Aria shook her head and said passionately, "Don't you dare Daniel, don't you dare feel sorry for him." She practically spat, disgusted by this brute that had hurt one of the most important people in her life. "He deserves that and more. After I've learnt to fight I'm thinking about going down and giving him a taste of his own medicine."

Knowing she was serious, Danny said, "It's DE-fence and don't do that. Violence doesn't solve anything."

"True," She said. "But I really want to end him."

"Come on," Danny pulled her along. "We're gonna be late."

It turned out that the self-defence instructor wasn't taking them both. They'd be in the same room and next to each other, but Danny had the actual instructor while Aria got his fifteen year old son who looked way hunkier than any teenager should do. Aria observed this, more subtly than Daniel had thought it and The Guy laughed. He said something about working out and being a blackbelt. Daniel mentally groaned, then panicked when he realised he'd done it aloud! The instructor seemed to be the only one that noticed though, thankfully. He winked at Danny before telling the two of them to hang up their stuff on the coatracks and then come back over. Seven Nation Army was playing through the speakers as they practised.

 _ **I'm gonna fight 'em off  
A seven nation army couldn't hold me back  
They're gonna rip it off  
Taking their time right behind my back**_

Aria seemed to be having a lot of fun, she was laughing almost the whole time as The Guy whispered stuff while showing her self-defence moves. Danny frowned, but focussed on the instructor. He nodded. The Guy was holding Aria's wrist, saying something. She nodded intently, rotated it and jerked it upwards. He grinned. Danny heard something about knees from the Instructor. He really needed to focus. Okay, he had to thrust the sole of his foot towards the knee, he tried softly. "A bit harder," The instructor said. Danny tried again, a bit too hard. "Sorry!" "It's fine! It's good, it means you've learnt that move." He laughed.

 _ **Don't wanna hear about it  
Every single one's got a story to tell  
Everyone knows about it  
From the Queen of England to the hounds of hell**_

The Guy was stood behind Aria, his arms loosely around her neck and holding hers. Slowly he got her to lift them and his arms above her head and told her to spin around. She did and they were facing each other. Their eyes held as she rotated her wrist and jerked it upwards, falling backwards. Danny impulsively jerked forwards but The Guy was there, holding her, steadying her. His arms were on her waist and her hand was on his tank-top covered chest. They weren't laughing anymore. Was it just Danny's imagination or were they leaning towards each other.

"Daniel?"

"Sorry," Danny turned around. "I got…distracted."

"She's good," The instructor observed. "Natural talent."

Danny had to agree… It was easier in a way not to be looking at them, but he also couldn't see what was happening. He heard laughter. Okay, they weren't making out. Good. "Yeah well she'd rather be kicking ass, but I think defence is always a better option."

The instructor nodded. "Well, let's try that move they just did." Danny shivered as The Guy said something supposed to be a joke.

 _ **And the message comin' from my eyes says, "Leave it alone."**_

 _ **And the feeling coming from my bones says, "Find a home."**_

 _ **And the stains comin' from my blood tell me, "Go back home."**_

* * *

Aisha was pretty terrible at lying to her parents, so she was trying to avoid them. It wasn't too hard at the moment what with all her AP classes to look good on her college applications, cheerleading practise (which was becoming a lot more intense what with Sectionals being in four weeks) and this Glee Club mash-up assignment. Aisha was in charge of costumes. They'd all pitched in some money and given her their measurements so she and Beth were going shopping, despite being on different teams. The two girls went straight after the second Glee Club meeting of the week, in Beth's car. Aria was doing some self-defence thing with Danny so she didn't need a lift anyway.

"I'm excited," Beth declared. Aisha giggled, putting her hand on Beth's bare leg (wow those cheer skirts were really short) as she drove. The blonde girl smirked, putting her hand on Aisha's bare leg in return briefly a little while later. Her hand trailed up from the knee to where the flaps on the skirt were and Aisha took a sharp intake of breath, but Beth put her hand back to the steering wheel as the traffic light changed to go.

When they got to the mall they headed to their favourite bargain store. They were going through the racks when Beth squealed. "What's happening?" Aisha asked. "Are you getting murdered?"

Beth pulled an emerald green sparkly mermaid prom dress off the rack and held it up against Aisha. "You would look SO sexy in this for prom!" Aisha smiled uncontrollably. This was the Beth she knew, going on and on about prom! Beth's eyes widened and she threw Aisha the dress before snatching a baby pink puffy prom dress too. "I'm in love."

"Beth, we're not here for that."

"Aish, it's on the here today, gone tomorrow rack." Beth's face was pure despair. "I need it! It can't be gone tomorrow!" Aisha couldn't argue that it set off Beth's blonde locks beautifully and enhanced her curves, but it was also pretty expensive for their budgets.

"I'm gonna go find these performance outfits, you coming?" Beth shook her head, pulling out her phone. Aisha rolled her eyes, but smiled. She fingered a silk purple dress and ran her fingers along a series of beautiful clothes before a short blue spaghetti strap empire waist dress caught her eye. It was a gorgeous shade of blue and would look good on everyone in her group. Along the waistband were silver gems. It was a nice material, cheap but not too cheap, astoundingly there was three in the right sizes. Now she had to look for shoes and then clothes for the boys. Before she could Beth had bounded over.

"My mom says if it's perfect to buy it as an early birthday present to myself!"

"Your birthday's in June!"

Beth didn't seem to care. She held the soft material against herself and sighed. "Finally." She had been searching for a while, since they were kids really. Beth was always looking. They'd had prom last year and she'd worn a white sequinned dress. She'd been nominated for Prom Queen but had lost, she really wanted to win this year, wanted to have the perfect high school experience. Aisha didn't care so much about prom or being queen of it. She did care about being the perfect daughter in almost every other way. Her parents just didn't seem to care about prom. They thought it was stupid, so she didn't care about it either. Beth had eventually picked out red dresses with silver and an outfit in black and red for the boys so they paid. The blonde was vibrating with happiness as they headed to the food court to eat, where they may have played a brief game of footsie…

* * *

Beth, Maeve, Kaelynn, Liam, Danny and Lucas stood facing away from the audience on the stage in the auditorium where they'd chosen to perform their mashup. Beth felt confident in the hot red dress and black heels as the music started and they turned around one by one.

 _ **Thanks for making me a fighter**_

There was loud whistling and cheering. Beth loved it, loved performing, whether that be cheerleading or singing. They'd choreographed a pretty bad-ass routine too. Beth winked at Aisha as she passed her while they swapped over. She looked great in her blue dress, like an angel. Aria and Nat looked sweet too. Beth settled into a chair next to Marley and the other girls were next to her, the boys in the row behind. Marley had gotten her husband Jake (Beth's biological uncle) to come and help her judge, along with their six year old twins Jasmine and Matthew. Beth pulled Jasmine onto her lap, whispering about how good this was going to be and winked at Matthew. Jake smiled at her.

"Off you go!" Marley said and they began to click and sing, the band not kicking in until they moved into the first Fall Out Boy section.

 _ **(Aisha, Asher and Kieran: Remember, remember, remember, aah**_

 _ **Remember, remember, remember, remember, aah**_

 _ **Remember, remember, remember, oh**_

 _ **Remember, remember, remember,)**_

 ** _Natalia, Aria and Dylan: Some legends are told_**  
 ** _Some turn to dust or to gold_**  
 ** _But you will remember me_**  
 ** _Remember me for centuries_**

 _ **All: Remember my name (fame!)**_ _**  
Remember me for centuries**_

 _ **Aria: I'm gonna make sure you remember my name**_

 _ **All: FAME!**_

Beth clapped fanatically, so did everyone else. Who would have thought to put those two songs together? But it sounded amazing. She grinned at Aisha, who looked alive, her hair crazy from whipping it around. Marley had a hard job on her hands. They all looked at her and she said "me and Jake are going to go deliberate, talk amongst yourselves." Aisha came over and sat beside Beth so Beth handed her Matthew and tickled Jasmine. The little girl laughed and Beth grinned. She loved kids. Aisha was jogging Matt up and down, playing a game she called bumper cars and swinging him around. He seemed to be loving it! Aria, Danny, Natalia and Liam were sitting a few rows back chatting and the others were spread out.

"Everyone did fantastic, like, seriously, I was amazed!" Marley re-appeared with Jake. "But we do have a winner. Drumroll please," Everyone tapped their legs and the drummer did an actual drumroll. "Team Fighter/Stronger!" She declared. Everyone cheered. "We'll be singing your mashup in two weeks at Sectionals." Beth made a funny face at Jasmine who laughed and clapped.

 _ **Next Time: The club thinks they're ready for Sectionals but when one member has to drop out, will they be able to find a replacement and get to Regionals?**_

 _ **Songs Featured: Seven Nation Army- The White Stripes (radio)**_

 _ **Fame- Naturi Naughton version (Aisha, Asher, Kieran, Natalia, Aria and Dylan)**_

 _ **Centuries- Fall Out Boy (Aisha, Asher, Kieran, Natalia, Aria and Dylan)**_


	7. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6:**_

 _ **Previously on The New New Directions:**_ _ **Beth and Aisha decided to be together- but to hide it from Aisha's parents for now, the Glee kids had a mash-up competition to decide a song for Sectionals, and Danny and Aria started self-defence classes after he and his dad managed to get Jack expelled.**_

It had been just over three weeks since Danny's team had won the mash-up competition. Today was Sectionals. He and Aria were still going to the self-defence classes once a week but it was getting a little easier to focus on his instructor. He really did want to be prepared if someone attacked him or someone he loved. Beth and Aisha had revealed their relationship to the Glee Club but told them they weren't ready to tell their parents yet which was fair enough, as long as they were happy. As yesterday had been a Friday, Liam, Natalia and Aria's parents had let them stay overnight at his house and they'd gone to bed pretty early, excited and nervous for the next day, although not without a game of Never Have I Ever. Now the four of them were getting changed, all in the same room- like they always had. The boys had black outfits with red ties and the girls were changing into red tulle dresses with white lace on the bodice. Danny and Liam were adjusting their ties when Aria said "Can someone do this up?" Natalia was pulling on her own dress and Liam was sorting out the tie. Danny nodded. He stepped closer to Aria and did up the zip at the back, his hand brushing against bare skin. Swiftly, he stepped away. Aria smiled at him over her shoulder before reaching down to put on her black dance heels. "Thanks." Nat asked the same thing and Aria did hers up for her then they both started laughing about something. Liam rolled his eyes jokingly at Danny, who for some reason suddenly couldn't hear anything anyone was saying. It was all distant mumbling. He blinked and again, feeling lost and confused, panicked. They were all looking at him talking without speaking. Suddenly there was a rush of sound and colour and he could hear them again.

"Danny?" Liam was gently pulling him over to his bed and sitting him down so he was leaning against the pillows. Aria and Nat had pulled off their heels and were on the bed too, their faces anxious.

"I'm fine," He said, his voice coming out weaker than he would have hoped. He tried to get up but his friends all pushed him back.

Aria stood up. "I'm gonna go get you some food and water. You don't look too good Danny." He saw his reflection then in the mirror. He looked as pale as a vampire. Natalia put her hand on his.

"It's okay," She whispered. "Liam, can you go tell Mr and Mrs Schue." Liam nodded and followed Aria out the door. "You didn't eat very much at breakfast." Natalia frowned. "You didn't eat anything. What did you eat last night?" Danny shrugged.

"I wasn't hungry," He said, leaning back against the pillows and not answering the question. His head was still spinning but he tried to act like he was perfectly fine, he didn't want his friends worrying for nothing.

Aria raced back up the stairs, bearing a glass of water and a bowl of cereal. She shoved the cereal into Danny's hands, placing the water on the desk beside him and taking a seat on the side Natalia wasn't already at. Their watchful eyes on him, Danny swallowed the food and sipped the drink but it tasted horrible. His parents came into the room as he was taking another spoonful of cereal, Liam behind them. Natalia stood up and headed over to them, whispering something. Emma took both of his hands, saying "Oh sweetie." Danny couldn't look at her, instead keeping his eyes on her shoes. His mom used to be extremely OCD, she was a lot less so now but still liked everything as perfect as possible. He didn't want to disappoint her and his dad. God they must think their son was such a loser. First the whole thing with Jack and now this.

"Look, can we just talk about it later?" He asked, starting to stand up and wobbling. "We need to get to Sectionals." Emma, gently, pushed him back down.

"No way," She said.

Danny looked at his dad, though not into his eyes. "Dad!"

Will shook his head. "I'm with your mom. Liam and Natalia told us what happened and we don't want you up on stage and fainting. Marley wouldn't either-" He glanced at Emma. "Maybe you should talk to Marley about this."

His head still spinning, Danny wasn't exactly in the mood to ponder about whatever that meant. "Okay." The others left the room with his dad, he was probably going to drive them, Danny sat staring at the wall.

His mom gave him a soft smile. "It's okay," She said then she took his hand but didn't make him look up at her. "I want you to know that this doesn't in anyway make me or your dad or your sister think any less of you." He nodded. "And we're going to get you some help, I promise."

* * *

As Liam explained to Marley over the phone what was going on, Aria was on the phone to Milo, her self-defence instructor. The two of them had grown pretty close over the last few weeks and she'd told him about Sectionals and the song choices a good few times. She'd even tried to teach him the choreography, and he'd been a fast learner. When they had chosen the full set list Beth and Aisha, ever the perfectionists, had insisted on buying one extra of each outfit (boy and girl), pointing out that they could return it if it never got used. They'd taken an average from the boys' sizes and the result was pretty close to Milo's. He agreed and told Aria he'd meet her at their school (where Sectionals was being held) in ten minutes. Relieved, she hung up on Milo and sent a quick text to Emma asking after Danny as they pulled into the school's parking lot.

"Good luck," Will told them despite his mind clearly being preoccupied.

Natalia smiled. "Thanks, give us updates on Danny."

Nodding, Will added, "None of you need a ride back do you?" Aria explained that her mom was dropping them all off and Will nodded again, leaving them, after one last good luck.

The three friends wandered inside quietly, heading towards the choir room where they were setting up headquarters. Liam broke the silence. "This wasn't how we were expecting our first competition to go, hey?"

Aria shook her head then looked between the two of them. "Let's do this for Danny, win Sectionals so we can go on to Regionals and he can be here with us!" They both smiled and they were in the choir room. Marley was sat at the piano on the phone, she mouthed at them that she was talking to Emma. Jake was there too with the kids as well as the whole Lopez-Pierce family…and Aria's family. She broke away from the others.

Rachel smiled at her daughter when she saw her and spoke before Aria could open her mouth. "Marley called me and Sam in for backup in a bit of a panic, don't worry it looks like everything's fine and we'll be heading out to sit down soon."

"I'm happy you're here," Aria said in a low tone, barely a whisper, but her mom smirked.

"I'll talk to you later," She said, standing up and gesturing behind her daughter. "Looks like you have someone to train." Leading her husband and kids over to Santana and Brittany she whispered into Aria's ear as she went past, "He's totally hot." The brunette glared after her mom before turning to Milo.

"Right, let's get to work."

* * *

Aisha sat in the backseat of her parents' car silently. "You didn't have to come to this."

"Everyone else's parents are going, you said?" Her dad pointed out from the driver's seat.

"Yeah," She said quietly, trying to think of an excuse to get them to turn around. The truth was that Marley had given her and Beth a duet and although it wasn't a love song she was worried, well more liked paranoid, that her parents would realise that there was something between them. Once they had pulled into the parking lot and gotten out of the car it was quite busy what with two other schools competing and all the audience members here to watch them parking in here. Still, Beth spotted Aisha. She darted towards her and reached out a hand. "MY PARENTS!" Aisha hissed as quietly as she could and Beth dropped the hand, disappointment noticeable on her face only for a split second and only noticeable because Aisha knew her so well. Beth's mom was right behind her and she knew about them. Aisha envied that.

"Hey Mr and Mrs Abdi," Beth grinned at Aisha's parents. They smiled at her. Aisha's parents liked Beth. They'd known her practically as long as Aisha had and were good friends with Shelby so they were going to sit with her, who would be sitting with Beth's biological parents, Aria's parents, and all the other Glee Club parents. Aisha felt Beth wave at her and snapped back to reality. Their parents were still talking but nodded for the girls to go ahead. Near the choir room Beth suddenly (gently) pushed Aisha to the wall and kissed her. For a second she let herself get lost in the familiar feeling of Beth's chapsticked lips on hers. Then she subconsciously felt the observers walking by's stares and eye rolls and realised that anyone of these people could be her mom or dad. She shoved Beth away, harsher than necessary. "Not now."

Instead of being mad, which would have been easier, Beth nodded. "Sorry, that was stupid, I was stupid." Aisha mentally groaned at how cute and amazing she was and pulled her into the choir room.

* * *

Asher and his sister Kaelynn were explaining to his younger brothers Jax and Dane, as well as Aria's half siblings Bailey and Travis, what Glee Club was whilst his mom and mamá talked to Aria's parents. That was until he spotted Maeve Hummel. Maeve was pretty quiet in Glee Club. She spoke but she usually sat at the back and was doodling. They were dance partners but almost never talked apart from then. Today she was impossible not to notice. He'd met her half-brother Kurt quite a few times and they looked nothing alike yet right now he was getting the same vibe he got from Kurt from his sister. That they were doing something they loved and living their dream. He found it really attractive on her.

As they were first up they all warmed up around the piano and then Marley declared "Show circle!" All the kids got into a circle, after Marley explained what a show circle was. They were first up "This hasn't been an easy ride, but we're here and we're not backing down. That's exactly what the theme of Sectionals this year is- bouncing back. I'm amazingly proud of each and every one of you. I know this might sound cheesy, but honestly, you've put the work in and if you work as hard as you've been working this past week I reckon you're in with a great chance of winning this." They all put their hands into the centre and shouted "AAH-mazing!"

Beth and Aisha were at the back of the auditorium, ready to burst through and start their duet. Everyone else was on the stage. Aria and her friends were going through the moves again with her friend Milo who'd agreed to fill in for Danny. Kieran, Lucas and Dylan were whispering in hushed tones. Kaelynn and Maeve were stood next to each other, both looking nervous. Asher cleared his head. All that mattered right now was giving the best performance of his life. A voice over a loudspeaker announced that the show was about to begin and the kids got into their places with their dance partners, scattered across the stage. Marley was on the stage beside them, wishing them each good luck and then she moved over to the wings. Asher took a deep breath as the voice announced that this was the Western Ohio Sectionals 2026, then announced the judges and finally, "Give a round of applause for the William McKinley High School Newwwwww Directions!"

The audience, who they couldn't see what with the closed curtain, cheered and then Beth and Aisha started to sing 'It's my Life'.

 _ **Beth: This ain't a song for the broken-hearted**_

 _ **Aisha: No silent prayer for the faith-departed**_

 _ **Beth+Aisha: I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd**_

 _ **You're gonna hear my voice**_

 _ **When I shout it out loud**_

They were strutting down the walkways in the audience and when they got to the chorus they were on the stage and the curtains parted. From different sides of the stage Lucas and Dylan ran to the girls as their dance partners and started to spin them at the same time as the other couples. Then the boys swung them up and then lifted their girl partners up onto their shoulders and held them there. Asher lifted Maeve up, grinning as he sung. It felt like he was on top of the world.

After the chorus the New Directions all fell back into a line, moving their arms as choreographed before spinning their heads and then dancing with their partner again.

 _ **All: I just want to live while I'm alive**_

 _ **'Cause it's my life!**_

At the end of the song came to a close the audience cheered loudly. Asher grinned and saw Maeve with a similar expression beside him, but they didn't have time to take it in just yet. The piano player started playing 'Skyscraper' by Demi Lovato. It was slow and beautiful. There wasn't a dry eye in the audience by the end of the song. The boys led the girls into a diamond type shape with everyone facing the front. From there they just sung standing still until the last line of the song where they all dropped to a crouch as the audience roared their approval and Asher cast a quick smile at Maeve, who caught it and winked.

* * *

Beth could barely stop the huge grin on her face although she knew she was supposed to have a straight face on for the beginning of the next song. It was just so amazing singing- it felt as good as when they won Nationals at cheerleading last year. Performing was definitely what she was meant to do, whether that be through cheering, singing, dancing- whatever! Now it was time for the song Beth's group had won the mash-up with. As the music for the next song kicked in they stood up row by row along the diamond, starting with Aria at the front.

 _ **All: Hush, just stop**_

Quickly they swung around into a semi-circle and from there the choreography came as naturally as breathing, at least that's what it felt like to Beth. This what she felt comfortable doing.

 _ **Boys: Well I, I thought I knew you, thinkin' that you were true  
Guess I, I couldn't trust called your bluff time is up  
'Cause I've had enough**_

 _ **Girls: I'm not your property as from today, baby**_

 _ **You might think that I won't make it on my own**_

 _ **All: But now I'm…**_

 _ **Stronger than yesterday**_

 _ **Now it's nothing but my way**_

 _ **Girls: My loneliness ain't killing me no more**_

 _ **All: Thanks for making me a fighter**_

As the song ended and the applause continued Aisha caught Beth's eye. She was smiling widely, and that made Beth's smile even greater. The curtain closed and the New Directions hurried off the stage to reconvene in the choir room before they headed out to the audience seats to watch the next group.

"Well done everyone!" Marley grinned. She stood at the door and gave them all high fives as they entered. "That was amazing, ten times better than anything else we've done, which is saying something!" Everyone grinned. Marley held out her phone. "Someone else wants to congratulate you too!"

"Danny!" Everyone called out at the same time when Marley turned her phone so they could see it. He told them that he'd watched the performance as a live stream on the show choir website and had loved it. There did seem to be something bothering him, though Beth didn't know what it was. She knew what had happened in the morning and could tell it wasn't that, but apart from that she had no idea.

An hour or so later the New Directions were stood on the stage with Marley, the other two clubs, their directors, and the judges. Third place…wasn't them. The spotlight turned black on the club that had come third as one of the judges gave them a trophy. Beth felt Aisha slip her hand into hers and almost gasped in surprise. "In first place and going through to Regionals…" Everyone on that stage seemed to take a collective breath in. "From William McKin-" After that Beth couldn't hear the rest of the result as the roar from her team-mates overwhelmed her. She saw the boy who'd filled in for Danny, Milo, cheer with Aria and her friends and lift her up. Pulling Aisha into a hug, she grinned spectacularly before hugging everyone else on the team as celebratory music played and the judges handed Marley the winner's trophy.

After that there was the 'congratulations' and hand shaking from the other teams, a few (hundred) group photos with the trophy from parents and the hugs from her parents and sister, before they could go. She and Aisha decided to meet their parents in the parking lot, saying they both needed to use the bathroom. It was Aisha that had said that, and sure enough once they were in an almost abandoned hallway she spoke.

"I think I'm ready to tell my parents about us," She said as she put a hand in Beth's.

Pausing, Beth asked "Are you sure?" Aisha nodded. "This just seems very sudden."

Shrugging, Aisha said "I've been thinking about it ever since you told your mom, and Quinn and Puck. I want to be able to be honest with my parents."

"Honest about what?" Mrs Abdi's voice came from behind them and the two girls spun around, Beth dropping Aisha's hand.

 _ **Next Time: Aisha tells her parents about her and Beth. It's also Thanksgiving and the kids think about what they have to be thankful for.**_

 _ **Songs Featured: It's My Life- Bon Jovi (Beth &Aisha)**_

 _ **Stronger- Britney Spears (New Directions)**_

 _ **Fighter- Kelly Clarkson (New Directions)**_


	8. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7:**_

 _ **Previously on The New New Directions:**_ _ **The Glee Club won Sectionals but Danny has an eating disorder and had to miss it so Milo stepped in, and Aisha's parents know she's hiding something.**_

Aisha's parents had sat the girls down the evening after Sectionals and they had explained. Beth had slid a hand onto Aisha's as she told them that she was gay. It hadn't been the reaction she'd expected, they hadn't been angry, at least not at first. It was worse than that. They'd looked at her like they were betrayed, like they didn't even know who she was anymore. She'd opened her mouth but couldn't find any words. Then the fire started. Her dad turned to her, his face blank and said "get out of my house".

Aisha could only get out "D.." Her heart plummeting.

Beth looked at them pleadingly. "Mr Abdi, I know you didn't expect this but someone's sexuality doesn't change who they are, it's just another part of them."

His gaze shifted. "You can leave too." Beth opened her mouth but he suddenly shouted, "NOW!" Both girls jumped in fright. "You have ten minutes to gather your things," Her father said to Aisha. "After that I never want to see your face again."

Tears streaming down her face Aisha looked to her mom, but she was shaking her head with disappointment and when she looked up her eyes burnt a whole through Aisha's. She remembered when she was younger and she used to play wedding with her mom. They'd make up a perfect man, describe the perfect dress, the perfect cake, the perfect song, the perfect venue, the perfect Aisha. She felt Beth pulling her up, out of the living room, up the stairs and to her room but just fell limply onto the bed as her girlfriend looked at her worriedly while packing her stuff for her. Just before ten minutes passed, Beth held Aisha's hand and whispered "I love you, if they can't accept you for who you are then they aren't worthy of your love." She hefted a big travel bag filled with Aisha's things onto her side and took the handle of a suitcase also stuffed. Turning to the brunette she asked, "Are you okay to carry that last suitcase and bag." Aisha nodded and picked them up, noticing then that tears had run out. Now she just felt…empty.

If she'd expected her parents to be waiting there and take back what they'd said when they saw her there with her bags, she was let down. She could hear her mom moving around in the kitchen making dinner and could picture her dad reading the newspaper, flipping through the sports pages. Taking a deep breath she followed Beth out the door.

Shelby was amazingly kind and readily agreed to let Aisha live with them for as long as she wanted to, directing her to the spare bedroom and telling her daughter that the open door policy was still a thing just because Aisha lived here now. Although, Aisha didn't hear much else she said, her mind still reeling over the events of just an hour ago. It was Thanksgiving the next day and the three of them sat on the couch after dinner. Beth put her arm around Aisha and let her sink into her shoulder as they watched the president pardon the turkey on TV. It was one of the family's Thanksgiving traditions, Aisha knew. It did help her relax a bit, being in a calm house with Beth holding her and her mom smiling at them.

* * *

The Evans' were headed to New York to go and visit the Anderson-Hummel's and spend the Thanksgiving weekend with them. It seemed like a very long and awkward drive to the airport and an even longer plane ride what with the fact that Rachel was back to being at odds with her eldest child, this time because Aria had refused to clean her room before they left, and Aria was doing all she could to make her mad, frustrated that there was no way she could help Danny and feeling a need to take out her anger somehow. Bailey and Travis were screaming and shouting the whole way and the family got a whole lot of complaints. Along with that, people had booked their thanksgiving seats early and when the family had booked there had only been a few seats left. The plane had three columns of seats. On either side they were two seaters and the middle had three seaters. They'd booked their six seats all in one row and there was a lot of leaning over and shouting to get each other to hear. Rachel eventually plugged her music in and held Sam's hand across the aisle but couldn't do that anymore when people kept coming through. Bailey and Travis were kicking the seats in front of them where there was a cranky elderly couple. Aria was just glaring at everyone and listening to her music through earphones at such a pounding volume that Rachel could hear it from three seats away, with her own music playing through earphones, as if it was playing out loud at high volume!

Finally, the plane touched down at the airport in New York and they met up with Kurt, Blaine and their children, eight year old Charlie and four year old Phoebe. "Alright," Blaine said after they'd caught up quickly. "We'll need to split up in the cabs, so who's with who?" Sam quickly decided that he wanted to ride with his best friend, Rachel opted to ride with them as well, and she brought Bailey and Travis with her, knowing that Aria wouldn't want to ride with her blonde half-siblings.

"Bagsie front seat!" Charlie shouted as he raced out the doors. Aria's Uncle Kurt hurried after him to catch him before he ran into the traffic and Aria lifted Phoebe up onto her hip.

"Hey Pheebs, how's Josh?"

"Josh?"

"I thought you two were getting married!" Aria poked her cousin and giggled.

"Not anymore. He's a boy! Daddy Baine says boys got cooties!"

Aria chuckled. "True. Doesn't that mean Daddy Blaine has cooties too?"

Phoebe shook her head. "Daddy Baine says he and Daddy Kur's a man" She flexed fake muscles and did a growl which almost made Aria drop her she was shaking with laughter so much. "'N only boys have cooties." By now they'd reached the taxi. Charlie was sulking in his Calvin the Car booster seat, but looked moderately happier when he saw his cousin. Kurt gestured for Aria to take the seat next to him so she helped Phoebe into her Disney princess booster seat. "You know," Aria whispered to Kurt as she sat down in the middle part of the taxi. It had a good view out the window whereas where the younger ones were sitting there wasn't windows. "Charlie can sit in the front if he wants."

"No," Kurt said loud enough for the children in the back to hear. "If he's not old enough to know not to go running away from us into a crowded parking lott where he could easily get hurt, then he isn't old enough to sit in the cool seat. Anyway," Kurt decided to move on to asking her about Glee Club, he and Blaine had been a part of it too.

"Uncle Kurt, what were my parents like in high school?" Aria asked Kurt when she'd told him all about Glee Club and their Sectionals win.

"Well, your mom was, pretty competitive, and very talented. She still is both those things actually! But having you and then Bailey and then Travis really toned the competitiveness in her down. She used to kill for soloes! And I was never really best friends with Sam in high-"

"Not Sam," Aria said. "My actual- my father- Finn."

Kurt looked at her. "A lot to tell there. Well, he was Quarterback of the football team, most popular guy at school, dating the head cheerleader- Quinn." Aria was leaning forward to hear more but she was confused.

"Quinn? As in _Aunt_ Quinn?"

"Yes, let's continue!" Kurt chuckled. "Finn was very handsome and everyone had a crush on him- including your mom and me-"

Aria looked disgusted. "But he was your brother!"

"Step-brother," Kurt corrected. "And not at that point he wasn't. Anyway, he became a better person and he was wonderful; a great leader for the Glee Club, a great boyfriend for Rachel, and the best brother I could have hoped for, me and Maeve both think that." Maeve was Aria's aunt, Kurt and Finn's sister, and Aria's Grandpa Burt and Grandma Carole's daughter. She was in Beth and Aisha's year and she was in the Glee Club.

Aria glanced back at her (step) cousins, who'd both fallen asleep. "Uncle Kurt… if my dad was still alive… what do you think it would be like?"

"Aria-"

"Do you think my parents would still be together and Sam and my mom wouldn't be married?"

"I don't know," Kurt looked incredibly awkward. "Your parents had just gotten back together when your mom got pregnant Aria. No-one knows how things turn out- I never thought they'd break up to start with. They were clearly in love. I think, that Sam fell in love with your mom after Finn died, that they got to know each other a few years afterwards."

"Bailey and Travis wouldn't be alive," Aria observed, not sure how she felt about that. "And I might have some other full siblings."

"Aria," Kurt shouted for the cab driver to pull over then then took his niece's hand. "We can't change the past. You might not be able to see it, but your family is perfect and I know for a fact that your father would have been thrilled with how Sam is looking after you and your mom, and how well you two looked after each other when it was just you and your mom."

* * *

The next day Beth woke up with one goal, to make this day as perfect as possible for Aisha. She changed into a gold dress before going next door to wake up her girlfriend. Aisha was already wake though. She was sat on the edge of her bed, looking at a photo frame Beth had packed for her, uncertainly. She sat down beside her on the bed. Aisha turned to Beth, handing her the frame. "Would you throw this away for me?" She said softly.

"You sure?" Beth asked.

Aisha nodded. "You were right yesterday. It's going to be hard, but I don't want people in my life who can't accept me. All of me." She stood up slowly and walked to the wardrobe- Beth had helped her unpack the night before. Then she took out a yellow top, jeans and a light blue full volume skirt. "Jeans or skirt?"

"The skirt's cute," Said Beth, turning the frame around in her hands. She shot Aisha a reassuring smile and then she went to her room and threw the frame in the trash.

Downstairs Shelby was cooking pancakes for breakfast, another tradition in their family. Beth, her mom and Aisha ate the pancakes while they chatted about Glee Club and their plans for Regionals. After breakfast the doorbell rang and there was Puck and Quinn, whose baby bump was developing now. "Happy Thanksgiving!" They declared as they stood in the doorway. Beth gave them a hug each and looked back at Aisha. She'd felt a little bad that all three of her parents would be here and none of Aisha's but after when they'd been eating their pancakes she'd told her girlfriend that she was only one girl and she had three parents, so she was more than happy to share them around. Quinn gave Aisha a hug too as Puck told her they were proud of her for being so brave. Aisha smiled genuinely, which made Beth smile too.

They all worked together to make the dinner and between it they watched the football on TV, Puck got a little distracted by that. When dinner was ready they all sat around the table and said what they were thankful for. Aisha made Beth tear up saying she was thankful for her and for her amazing family. "I love you," She told her. It was the first time Aisha had ever said those three words to her and she didn't care that it wasn't just them in the room like she'd imagined it. It was better that her parents were here. She leant across and gave Aisha a quick kiss on the lips, rolling her eyes as her parents cheered and laughed. The Corcoran family talent show always followed dinner, half an hour or so later so they could all relax for a while first. Usually Rachel, Aria (sometimes Rachel's two dads) and their family was there, sometimes even Quinn and Puck's parents, but they were all spending Thanksgiving elsewhere this year, although they were all coming here for Christmas, since Shelby's was the biggest house. Rachel and Sam normally sung a cheesy romantic duet for the talent show which Aria always rolled her eyes at. They all took part though, that was part of the fun, even little Travis played the xylophone last year while Bailey danced. Since Rachel and Sam weren't here Beth and Aisha would be doing the cheesy duet this year.

 _ **Beth: We'll do it all  
Everything  
On our own**_

Beth smiled as they sat on stools and looked at each other. _ **  
We don't need  
Anything  
Or anyone**_

 ** _Beth: All that I am_**  
 ** _All that I ever was_**  
 ** _Is here in your perfect eyes, (with Aisha harmonising) they're all I can see_**

They both stood up, looking into each other's' eyes. Aisha's were so beautiful, dark and hypnotising.  
 _ **  
Aisha (with Beth harmonising): I don't know where  
Confused about how as well  
Just know that these things will never change for us at all  
Beth+Aisha: If I lay here  
If I just lay here  
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?**_

"Awwwww!" Shelby, Quinn and Puck all said together as the girls ended the song and Aisha looped her arms around the back of Beth's neck and pulled her towards her. Their lips moved against each other's' and Beth felt that familiar burning fire she'd felt the first time they'd kissed in her car while the music had blared. It had felt like they were the only two people on the planet.

A little while later, after they had played a tonne of board games, Beth turned to her parents. "I'm going to go check on Aisha, she'd been upstairs for a while."

She found Aisha in the spare room, her legs up on the bed and her head buried in her knees. Gently she put a hand on Aisha's back. "Sorry," The brunette said as she turned around, wiping her eyes. "I didn't want to ruin anyone's day, and I've been trying hard to not worry about them, but it's…hard."

"Of course it is," The blonde said softly, brushing a piece of Aisha's hair behind her ear. "And that's okay."

* * *

When Kaelynn got the text from Beth and looked across to her brother she knew he'd gotten one too. Their moms and grandparents were talking and their brothers were watching the football on TV. The two of them slowly stood up and edged towards the door, suddenly their Mamá appeared. Santana had her arms folded over her chest. "Where are you two going?" She asked. They both paused for a minute and then exchanged a look. Their Mamá was trustworthy with this, she'd understand.

"To serve some justice," Said Asher, ridiculously.

Kaelynn clarified for her older brother, "Beth needs our help. Aisha came out to her parents last night and they threw her out." Santana's face turned stony and she threw open the door, grabbing her car keys from the side table and threw them to Asher.

"What are you waiting for?"

Half an hour later the eldest Lopez-Pierce siblings stood in the doorway of the Abdi house. Her blue eyed brother rang the doorbell and a middle aged Hindu couple came to the doorway. "Hi Sir, ma'am, I'm Asher-"

"And I'm his sister Kaelynn!" The Latina girl declared. "We're adopted." She pointed out when the couple looked between them confused. Kaelynn mentally rolled her eyes; so they didn't believe in adoption either? "We've got something to tell you."

"Sorry, not interested," The man said about to close the door but in a second Asher had his foot in it.

"Oh, I think you'll want to hear this one." Behind them, Beth pressed play and pounding 2000's music started to play.

 _ **Kaelynn: Look inside, look inside your tiny mind**_

 _ **Then look a bit harder**_

 _ **Asher: Cause we're so uninspired,**_

 _ **So sick and tired**_

 _ **Of all the hatred you harbour**_

As the couple looked on in confusion Beth emerged from behind the bushes. The Abdi's glared.

 _ **Beth: So you say it's not okay to be gay**_

 _ **Well I think you're just evil**_

 _ **You're just some racist**_

 _ **Who can't tie my laces**_

 _ **Your point of view is medieval**_

The three of them did a cute wave action as the two adults stood there in shock. As they were coming to the end Kaelynn gave Aisha's parents a mocking wink.

 _ **Kaelynn, Asher+Beth: F**k you, f**k you very, very much**_

 _ **Cause we hate what you do**_

 _ **And we hate your whole crew**_

 _ **So please don't stay in touch**_

 _ **F**k you, f**k you very, very much**_

 _ **Cause your words don't translate**_

 _ **And it's getting quite late**_

 _ **So please don't stay in touch**_

The three of them all held up their middle fingers and turned as Aisha's dad glared at the back of their heads and her mom gasped.

Kaelynn grinned at a content looking Beth. "Maybe I wasn't being the bigger person," The blonde girl said. "But that felt pretty great." Her brother laughed and gave Beth and then Kaelynn a high five before they climbed into their Mamá's car.

* * *

Normally Danny enjoyed Thanksgiving but this year he didn't get to eat whatever he wanted. His parents made sure he was definitely eating enough. They weren't mean about it or anything, he just didn't like them staring. He found himself turning away from everyone else at the dinner table. He was full quickly and when he put down his cutlery he knew they were staring even more. His eleven year old sister was looking at him curiously and he clenched his fists at his side. "I'm just taking a break," He said quietly. His parents said something, he didn't know what. Eleanor pushed a piece of her hair back and continued eating. Danny stared at the plate and then he forced himself to pick up the knife and fork and keep eating.

"Just do your best today Danny," Emma said. Next week they were going to see a councillor. _That_ didn't make him feel like there was something seriously wrong with him at all. His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out and discretely checked it under the table.

 _ **I hate football**_

 _ **-Liam**_

It made Danny smirk. It was the first time anyone had said something to him so completely normal since yesterday morning. He and Liam had bonded in first grade over their boredom at lunchtime while the other boys played sport.

 _ **Danny sat on the slope of the school field, bored and lonely. There was a large group of boys playing football in front of him and a smaller group on the other side of the field, near the girls. Turning around when he heard a twig crunch, Danny saw a boy with dark skin and brown hair standing behind a tree.**_

" _ **What are you doing?" He asked, confused.**_

 _ **The other boy looked embarrassed. "I wanted to talk to you, but I was too scared."**_

" _ **Scared of me?" He was the most unthreatening six year old in the history of six year olds. Danny laughed and stood up, walking over to the other boy. "I hate sports," He declared suddenly.**_

" _ **Me too!" Said the boy. He grinned. "I'm Liam."**_

" _ **I'm Danny," The two boys stared at each other for a while before Danny said, "do you want to play dragons?" The other boy nodded and they raced down the hill together, laughing as the other boys yelled at them for getting in the way.**_

Liam had been his first friend. They'd been dragon-slaying partners, a superhero team, a crew of two pirates and much more. They'd been inseparable for all of first grade. In second grade their classes changed but the two of them were still together, luckily.

 _ **The tables were in fours but by the time they had come into the classroom there'd only been one table with two seats next to each other. There was a brunette haired girl sitting there by herself, her head on the table like she was asleep. The boys crept gradually closer until the girl suddenly looked up like she was about to growl and Danny frowned. "Aria?" He'd seen her around school last year and her mommy was friends with his parents but he didn't talk to her except when she came to his house or the other way around, they weren't friends really. Liam looked at him and he sat down, gesturing for his friend to do the same. No-one else sat at the table so it was just the three of them, although Aria didn't really talk to them that first day. The two boys joked between themselves and she just kept up a constant glare.**_

 _ **At lunch break the next day the boys ran outside. They were ready to play one of their roleplays when Danny spotted Aria sitting on a piece of play equipment, kicking her legs. "Shall we ask her to play with us?"**_

 _ **Liam's mouth dropped. "But she's a girl!" He looked around as if to check no-one was listening and then whispered, "And she's scary!"**_

 _ **Danny shrugged. "She's not usually this grumpy. Her mommy probably just gave her the wrong type of sandwich or something. You know how annoyed you were that day when your daddy packed you egg."**_

" _ **EW!" Liam cringed at the memory and then nodded.**_

 _ **They ran over to the brunette girl and Danny asked if she wanted to play. "Play what?" She asked. Danny suggested superheroes.**_

" _ **Okay," Aria said. "I'll be the evil one and you guys can try and catch me." She jumped off of the play equipment and dashed away.**_

" _ **No fair!" Liam declared as he and Danny chased after her.**_

Danny smiled at the memory. The three of them had spent the next few years playing 'baby pranks the parents', 'walk the plank' and other variations of games the boys had already been playing. The twists Aria put on them made them way more exciting. The boys had found out the reason Aria was so annoyed was because her mom had been spending a lot of time with this blonde guy, Sam. They'd given the man a stern talking to and he'd agreed to give Aria more time with her mom too, before asking her if he could have her permission to marry her mom! Aria had given it to him with a seven year old serious face, admitting to her friends later that he wasn't 'so bad'. She hadn't been so thrilled when soon later Rachel and Sam had told her that they were pregnant. To this day Aria referred to her half-siblings as 'The Brats'.

 _ **Three eleven year olds were walking through the school gates together, their backpacks on, talking. "…so frickin unfair," Aria complained. She was complaining about her brother Travis's first birthday party. "It's not like he'll even remember it! He's a baby!" It was a month or so into their first year at middle school but a new girl had transferred last week. Danny felt bad for her, it must be tough moving to a new school in an area you didn't know at all midway through the first semester. The girl wasn't having an easy time either, there was a bunch of mean kids in their year who had been making fun of her and that lunchtime the three of them decided enough was enough, no-one should have to go through something like this by themselves. They raced over to her and while Liam stood next to her and held her hand in a friendly comforting way, Aria shoved away the leader of the bullies.**_

" _ **Stay out of this Berry," He said. If Danny didn't know better he'd think the guy had a crush on her, he was never mean to her, though he was to everyone else. And his voice seemed to soften just then. Aria**_ _ **was**_ _ **pretty, and loyal, and funny and fiercely passionate. As Danny stared at her he felt his heart rate quicken. What was going on?**_

"… _ **unless you want me to tell everyone why you ditched school last Thursday."**_

 _ **The bully went red and turned around, grunting to his friends, "Let's go."**_

 _ **Aria and Danny joined Liam and the new girl. "Are you okay?" Danny asked. The girl nodded and thanked them, repeatedly.**_

" _ **I've been to lots of schools and you're the first people who've defended me."**_

" _ **That's okay," Liam laughed. "We're the bringers of justice!" Aria shoved her friend playfully and Danny looked down for a moment, confused at what he was feeling.**_

" _ **What's your name?" Asked Aria.**_

 _ **The girl looked up and smiled gently, "Natalia."**_

Danny took his phone back out and sent a group text to his three best friends.

 _ **I'm thankful for you guys.**_

 _ **Happy Thanksgiving.**_

 _ **-Danny**_

 _ **Next Time:The Glee Family has a New Years party.**_

 _ **Songs featured: Chasing Cars- Snow Patrol (Beth and Aisha)**_

 _ **F**k You- Lily Allen (Beth, Asher and Kaelynn)**_


	9. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8:**_

 _ **Previously on The New New Directions:**_ _ **Aisha's parents found out she's gay and kicked her out so she moved in with Beth and Shelby, Kurt had a talk with Aria about loving the family she has while remembering who she's lost, and Danny reminisced about how he met his friends, and how much they mean to him.**_

 _1 month later_

Beth pulled up outside her niece's house and honked on her horn, unwilling to get out of the car in this weather. A minute or so later the door opened. Aria was wearing a black coat with a faux fur hood pulled around her head plus knee-length boots with her outfit but Rachel wound a red scarf around her daughter's neck anyway. She shouted out to Beth that her, Sam and the kids would meet them in an hour and the blonde girl nodded. Aria dashed towards the car, leaving footprints which would soon be covered up by the constant snowfall. Beth shivered as she opened the door and chill came through. Once they'd pulled away from the house and were driving back to the Corcoran's, Beth noticed that Aria didn't unwind the scarf, which is what she would have done usually. Smirking, Beth turned up the Christmas music, although her favourite holiday had just past.

When they arrived at Beth's house there was already a couple of cars outside. Every year, Shelby and Beth went all out for Christmas. They had lights around the house and on the hedges around it. There was a family of lit up snowmen above the door and a big flashing 'Santa please stop here' sign pushed into the ground. There were lights winding around the big tree next to her house and a lit up gingerbread house at the bottom of it. She and Aria headed inside where lights wound up the staircase and the light from the Christmas tree in the room next door shone brightly through the doorway. A buffet was being set up along the table they'd folded out which was now going almost along the whole side of the dining room. Quinn, Puck and Shelby were bringing out the food while Aisha picked the playlist for this rocking New Year's Eve. They had a party like this for friends and family every year since Shelby's house was the biggest, and it was always a tonne of fun. Beth was sure this was going to be the same, despite the sad events that had happened this year, a lot of good stuff had happened too. Aisha and Beth had gotten together, Glee Club had restarted and won Sectionals, Quinn had become pregnant (she was now three months pregnant and had recently found out she was having twins, which explained why the bump had been growing so fast!)

After the girls had taken off their coats and scarves and hats and gloves, they went through to see Aisha. The brunette was still looking at music, and seemed thrilled the girls were there. "I need your help!" Aisha said desperately. "Why did your mom put me in charge of something so important?" Aria and Beth both laughed and the blonde kissed Aisha on the cheek.

"It's okay babe," She comforted her girlfriend and added new and old songs to the playlist, complimenting Aisha on her selections too.

* * *

The Schuesters were the next to arrive, Emma had probably been worried they'd be late, Lucas and Dylan with their families, the Biestes, followed ten minutes later by Aria's family, then Natalia and Liam with their parents, Marley and her family, the Hudson-Hummels (including Kurt, Blaine, Phoebe and Charlie- who were in town for the holidays), Milo and his dad, Shelby's friends, and eventually, fashionably late, the Lopez-Pierces.

The adults were all next door eating and drinking and chatting when Beth announced they were going to draw names and songs out of a hat for karaoke. This led to funny pairings like Milo and Aria's little sister, who sang an old One Direction song. Aria put her head on Danny's shoulder laughing as Kaelynn watched, feeling bad for him. Danny clearly liked Aria but was too shy to say anything, and poor Aria couldn't tell. Kaelynn thanked God she didn't have any relationship drama. At that thought she glanced around, but nope, no suitors staring at her longingly. In a way it was disappointing, but she loved being single. Milo picked up Bailey at the end of the song, making the blonde little girl giggle before running over to her big sister and jumping onto Aria's lap before the brunette could stop her. Travis ran over and sat on Danny as well, Kaelynn watched as the best friends smiled. Next up was her brother and Maeve singing A Whole New World from Aladdin. Kaelynn smirked as she tossed her dark locks back, Asher didn't even roll his eyes. His blue eyes were looking forward, he didn't look too thrilled about having Maeve as a partner at first.

 _ **Asher: I can show you the world**_

 _ **Shining, shimmering, splendid**_

 _ **Tell me princess, now when did you**_

 _ **Last let your heart decide**_

Starving, Kaelynn headed next door and grabbed some food. The room was filled with the adults, laughing and reminiscing. When she came back the song was nearing an end and her brother and his duet partner were facing each other, dangerously close, staring into each other's' eyes.

 _ **Maeve: A whole new world**_

 _ **Asher: (Don't you dare close your eyes)**_

 _ **Maeve: A hundred thousand things to see**_

 _ **Asher: (Hold your breath, it gets better)**_

Jax and Dane rushed over to their big sister, tugging on her arm "Are they gonna kiss?" Asked her eight year old brother, pulling a face.

"EW!" Jax declared in response. Kaelynn had to agree- she was not into PDA. Maeve and Asher didn't kiss, luckily. They just kind of stared at each other and then turned away awkwardly and handed Beth their microphones (which Rachel had brought over from her house), bumping into each other in the process and blushing.

Kaelynn rolled her eyes, "¡Ay ay ay!" She saw her mamá and mom watching with barely contained laughter and stuck her tongue out at them. Brittany and Santana just laughed and turned back to talking with Quinn, their high school best friend. Kaelynn brushed a few strands of her black-brown hair behind her ear, leaving her hand resting there for a minute. She kind of wished she had a specific best friend- that was supposed to be one of the best parts of high school, right? In LA she'd had one, Kali. The two girls had originally bonded over their names both starting with K's back when they were in kindergarten. They'd stayed best friends for ten years, until this year. Kaelynn had started dating one of the hottest boys in school, Zac, after he asked her out. She'd texted Kali immediately of course, totally excited, practically jumping up and down. Her best friend hadn't been so thrilled though. In fact Kali hadn't texted back at all. The brunette had done a double taken and then checked and triple checked if the message had sent, they always replied to each other immediately and this was HUGE! Kali didn't meet her for lunch either and Kaelynn frowned, what was going on? She ate by herself all lunch, sat alone at the edge of the gamers' table, the only available one. She and Kali normally ate on the bleachers, laughing at the peppy cheerleaders and gawking over the cute boys. Kaelynn headed to her next lesson, reasoning that Kali must have gone home horribly sick and been unable to text and let her know. She had convinced herself of this so much that by the time she reached English (pretty early- she'd been bored) she was feeling terrible for Kali. That was until she got inside the door and saw the two people in the otherwise empty classroom. Kali was on the edge of the teacher's desk and Zac was stood in front of her. Kaelynn shot out of the room at lightning speed, her heart racing as she peered into the classroom. They looked like they'd just been talking, but suddenly Kali stood up, grabbed Zac's arm effectively pulling him closer and looped her arms around the back of his neck, smashing their lips together. Kaelynn had made an audible squeak before she could stop herself. Her heart was speeding and felt like it had just been ripped out of her chest. She was about to run to the restroom, feeling the tears already streaking down her cheeks, when Kali looked straight into her eyes and smirked maliciously.

Kaelynn felt tears running down her face again she relived the memory, and the aftermath. Their relationship had never recovered. She'd confronted Kali and discovered the other girl had been in love with Zac, but how the hell had Kaelynn been supposed to know that? Kali stole Zac, who awkwardly revoked the date with her, and as if that wasn't enough she started to spread lies about Kaelynn; that she'd been the one who started the rumour that Phoebe Richards, a cheerleader, had head lice, that Nathan Hastings, a gamer, was a male prostitute, that Gianna Woodworth, a prep, had herpes, and that Carter Masons, a jock, had been sent to rehab when he came back a week late after Christmas break. And that was just a few of the rumours. She managed to have every clique at the school mad at Kaelynn. As if that wasn't enough she then said that Kaelynn had tried but failed to lure Zac away from Kali, and would do the same with everyone else's boyfriends.

It had honestly been a huge relief when her moms had announced they were moving to Lima, she just couldn't deal with the hatred anymore. Kaelynn felt a hand on her back, pulling her back to the present. She turned around and saw that it was Beth, looking concerned. "Is everything okay?"

Wiping away the tears she'd cried at finally letting herself think about the events of the past six months or so, Kaelynn nodded. "You know what, I think it will be." It was a new year, a new start. Kali was thousands of miles away. The blonde older girl pulled her in for a hug, and Kaelynn gave a small smile. She liked Lima a lot more than LA.

* * *

Living at the Corcoran's had been therapeutic for Aisha. Although thinking about her parents still felt like a stab in the heart sometimes, it was a lot less painful, and happened less often. She'd been pretty busy. While they'd been at school she'd been busy with revision, as well as cheer practise and Glee practise, and then there'd been all the decorating to do around the house for Christmas- the Corcorans really went all out! The three of them had gone to a Christmas tree farm together, wrapped in scarfs and coats, and picked out a perfect tree, then decorated it together. After that they'd gone Christmas shopping, for food and presents, and the two teens had tried on all the silly holiday themed makeup, laughing at themselves. Christmas had been exciting, albeit a little daunting. They'd stayed at Shelby's house as it was the biggest by far, and organised things the night before in a state of excitement. On Christmas morning they'd opened one present each and then started to prepare lunch, listening to Christmas music and harmonising the whole day of course! At about ten the Anderson-Hummel and Hummel-Hudson family arrived, followed by Quinn and Puck, and their families, the Evans' and Rachel and Sam's families! The amount of people (and hugs!) was pretty overwhelming for Aisha who had always celebrated Christmas modestly in a family of three, but she found that she enjoyed this as much, if not more. It was hilarious to watch Bailey, Travis, Phoebe and Charlie fidgeting with anticipation to open the family presents (they'd already opened the ones from Santa), the food was delicious, the presents were great and so were people's reactions! After present opening they'd lounged around in front of the TV, some people on sofas, some in chairs, others in bean bags or on the floor. Aria, Beth, Maeve and Aisha were sat together, lying down after a huge lunch (and lots of cake!) when Aisha voiced her concerns about intruding on their family traditions. Maeve had just laughed, saying there was always room for more in their giant family, Jake, Marley and their family weren't even here that Christmas as they were on vacation!

Now it was New Years, they'd made their resolutions that they'd break soon enough, and were partying. This was sillier than the sit-down meal at Christmas. Family and friends had eaten at the buffet, sung karaoke, taken silly selfies and reminisced on the past year.

In the background she heard some of the first Glee generation (Rachel, Sam, Quinn, Puck, Blaine, Kurt, Santanta and Brittany) singing together.

 _ **Rachel: Long live the walls we crashed through  
I had the time of my life, (with the girls) with you  
All: Long, long live the walls we crashed through  
How the kingdom lights shined just for me and you  
And I was screaming long live all the magic we made  
And bring on all the pretenders  
I'm not afraid  
Singing, long live all the mountains we moved  
I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you  
And long, long live the look on your face  
And bring on all the pretenders  
One day, (Rachel only) we will be remembered**_

As she sat with Maeve, Beth, Lucas, Dylan, Asher and Kaelynn playing truth or dare close to Midnight, Aisha remembered all the good things that had happened this year; Glee, being true to herself, finally revealing her feelings to Beth, and getting an amazing response from almost everyone. At 11:56 Beth stood up from her chair, announcing they should all go outside for the fireworks. Her blonde girlfriend grinned infectiously at Aisha, pulling her outside into the already illuminated backyard, filled with Christmas decorations speaking of happiness and fun. "I've had an amazing year with you," The brunette girl told her girlfriend.

Beth smiled, even more- if that was even possible!- then raised her glass of lemonade, "here's to another year together." Aisha laughed, clinking their cups together and then they both sipped. As the live podcast from New York announced they were about to countdown, Beth pulled Aisha over, wrapping one arm around her back so they stood facing the soon to be illuminated night sky together.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six" The younger kids were jumping up and down with excitement as the others laughed, smiling.

"Five, four, three, two" Everyone was counting down together, full of joy and hope for the future. Her new family. Aisha beamed.

"ONE!"

* * *

Seeing his parents 'covertly' watching him, Danny shoved the first piece of food he saw into his mouth, and then noticed what it was as he chewed. Chicken wrapped in bacon. He felt nausea rising but swallowed it down, immediately taking something that looked like thick pizza to get rid of the taste. Predictably, there was chicken in that too. Danny grabbed a brownie after that, there was no way chicken could be in a brownie right? There wasn't, although it was a pretty big brownie and he felt so full he thought he would throw up anyway. Sinking into a chair beside Liam and Natalia the three of them watched Milo and Aria flirting and Danny sighed.

"I'm going to the bathroom," He told his friends, who nodded and said they'd be waiting here when he got back. As soon as Danny reached the bathroom he locked the door and bent down at the toilet, feeling lightheaded and sick. Nothing came up. Grabbing his phone, he looked up what he wanted to do and worriedly put two fingers in his mouth. It didn't feel good as he was doing it but afterwards when he looked in the mirror on the wall he felt like he had a sense of control over something. And he could eat like his parents wanted him to and still try and get muscles like all the cool guys at school. Danny went back out, grabbing a drink of water before heading back over to his friends. Aria was back by then. She smiled when she saw Danny and gestured for him to sit down next to her.

"We were just talking about that winter dance thing the school's doing next semester. Do you guys wanna go as a group?" Natalia asked.

Danny shrugged. "I'm not sure if I'm going."

Aria put her hand on his comfortingly. "I know we don't usually do these type of things but it could be fun."

Liam noticed Danny's eyes trained on the floor and changed the subject. "Have you tried the cheesecake?"

Aria and Natalia lunged for it, laughing. When the girls looked at him, Danny gritted his teeth. "I've eaten loads. I'm not hungry." He felt bad getting angry at his friends, he knew they were trying their best, but he didn't want to eat anything else. His councillor had set up a diet plan for him. He had to eat a certain amount of calories every day even when he really didn't want to, most every day. His mom normally packed him a lunch- varied but the same calories every day, counted carefully. He wasn't putting on weight even so and they were going to increase the amount of calories soon. He was glad he'd found a way of dealing with it- he didn't suddenly want to get fat, people still mocked him enough for other things.

"Okay everyone!" Beth shouted and the house went quiet. "It's 11.56, let's head outside to watch the fireworks!"

Everyone followed her out the room. It was dark outside but many houses were still lit up with Christmas lights, the Corcoran house was totally covered in them. Suddenly Milo The Guy appeared beside Aria. "Hey," He said.

"Hi," She replied, smiling at him. Natalia and Liam laughed. The adults drunk champagne, laughing about New Year's resolutions they'd fail to keep. The teenage couples giggled and talked about what a great year this would be. Danny stood alone in the centre of it all until his two friends came over to ask if everything was okay. "Yeah," He shrugged. "Let's watch the fireworks."

* * *

Aria had a great time at Shelby and Beth's New Years party. She and all her friends played Twister, leading to hilarity. Then they'd eaten lots of great food. She'd kept an eye on Danny, worried about him, but tried not to frustrate him too much, she knew if she were in his situation she wouldn't want her friends to treat her like a patient or a child, she'd want to be treated like a friend. So she joked around and asked her friends what she thought of her new black hair, she was fifteen now so Rachel had let her dye it. When she was out of high school and its' rules she was going to dye her hair crazy colours like blue and green but for now the school only allowed natural colours, and bright red. They sung some karaoke as well and Aria couldn't help but giggle at Milo singing One Direction with Bailey. After that the blonde girl ran over and jumped onto her lap before Aria could stop her. She rolled her eyes but let her stay, as Travis got onto Danny's lap. They watched Maeve and Asher singing together. The two of them would make a pretty cute couples, she thought, as they sang Disney, looking like the beginning of a fairy-tale romance.

New Years was always a fun time of year, reflecting on the past, looking towards the future. Aria shut her eyes as she thought about what she wanted from the coming year. Well, she wanted Glee Club to win Nationals to prove to Robin Sylvester and everyone else that they were wrong. She wanted to maintain her friendship with her best friends, and improve her relationships with her family- they _were_ her family, Sam, Bailey and Travis, and that didn't mean that her father was any less her father, or that she was disrespecting his memory by caring about her stepfather and her half-siblings. It was the first time really that she'd admitted that they were her family, and she suddenly didn't know why it had been such a big deal to her before. She shifted Bailey on her lap, hugging her, for probably the first time. The blonde girl turned around shocked. "Are you hugging me?"

"Duh," Aria poked her, laughing. Travis turned his blonde head as well and tried to climb up. They all laughed, Danny giving him a lift up and the siblings hugged. As the moment ended she saw Milo talking to Lucas and Dylan, they were in Glee Club too. He smirked at her and she blushed a little, feeling stupid, why was she blushing just because he'd looked at her. Carefully, she removed Bailey and Travis- they ran over to play a game with Phoebe and Charles Anderson-Hummel, and Marley and Jake's twins Jessie and Matt- and walked over to Milo, not before Liam and Nat had winked at her, she rolled her eyes at that.

Lucas and Dylan went over to the buffet area and Milo smiled. "Hey."

"Hi." She said back. There was silence for a few seconds and she mentally reprimanded herself. Hi? That wasn't very interesting conversation. She fiddled with her hair, nervous for some reason. She'd never felt like this with Milo before, she'd never felt like this with anyone before. "I-um."

"-I uh," He sounded as nervous as her, weirdly, he was normally smooth and funny with his Italian accent and raven hair. "Enjoying the party?"

"Very much." Aria replied. She glanced around, thinking about something to say to fill the awkward silence. Eventually he started to say something and at the same time, she did too, they both laughed.

She turned. "Well I'd better go back to my friends," She managed to get out. "They'll…uh… be wondering where I went." He nodded curtly, wandering over to Kieran, who was sitting alone.

Liam and Nat both wanted to know how it had gone, Nat more than Liam, but Aria changed the subject and they talked for a while until Danny returned from the bathroom. After that they talked and ate some more, before Beth announced it was four minutes to midnight so they had to go outside for the fireworks. They were standing in the garden when Milo caught Aria by the arm, they "Hey"d and "Hi"d, then he asked if he could talk to her. She nodded and they moved away a little to a slightly more private area.

"I was a little tongue-tied earlier, you look really pretty." Milo declared. Over his shoulder Aria saw her mom mouthing 'he's hot!' She rolled her eyes and turned back to the Italian boy.

"Thanks, you look pre- I mean handsome- too." She laughed nervously and thankfully he did too.

"I didn't say what I wanted to say earlier, so I was wondering if you would give me another chance." She nodded of course. "I think you're amazing; vocally talented, pretty, funny, violent (she laughed at that, remembering all their self-defence lessons). Do you want to go out with me?"

Although she'd thought to herself just months ago that dating when you were young was stupid, she found a smile lighting up her face as she vaguely heard people counting down to midnight in the background and nodded. "Yes!" At the same time they both stepped forward and she leant up to reach him, their lips colliding. Time seemed to slow down. She could smell Milo's cologne this close, she could feel his lips moving against hers, she could taste sweetness. She'd long told herself that she wanted her first kiss to be someone she really cared about, the same thing with her first boyfriend, and that was Milo. Suddenly there was a loud BOOM! And everyone in the garden cheered. The two of them pulled apart abruptly, only to see some people kissing (Sam and Rachel, Quinn and Puck, and Beth and Aisha among them) while others toasted, laughed and watched the fireworks. Bright colours exploded in the sky as the younger ones messed around with sparklers. "Happy new year!" Aria said, turning to look at Milo.

He grinned. "Happy new year!"

 _ **Songs featured: A Whole New World- Aladdin cast(Asher &Maeve)**_

 _ **Long Live- Taylor Swift (Rachel, Sam, Kurt, Blaine, Santana, Brittany, Quinn &Puck)**_


	10. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9:**_

 _ **Previously on The New New Directions:**_ _ **The Glee family (old and new) had a New Years party,**_ _ **Asher had a moment with Maeve, Danny developped bulimia, Kaelynn remembered her old best friend and decided to move on, Aria realised how much her family does mean to her, and kissed Milo at midnight.**_

Winter break was sadly over, everyone was back at school. The first Glee Club meeting of the New Year involved Marley congratulating them all on their work so far, and saying there were even greater things in the future. Aria found herself grinning ear to ear as she sat among her friends, her new BOYFRIEND (eek) beside her. For the first time in a long time, it didn't feel like she was competing against everyone, she felt like she was part of a team. Over the winter break she'd bonded with her family, and had asked her mom and Sam to show her old Glee Club videos- which they'd all watched together. They seemed to have so much love for each other, and she felt like their generation of the Glee Club had that too, although Danny seemed to have some sort of problem with Milo. She decided to talk to him after Glee Club that day, they'd stopped self-defence classes now so the four friends were walking to a café together. Natalia and Liam were walking ahead, laughing. Aria turned to Danny, asking him if he had a problem with Milo. Her best friend shrugged, folding his arms like he always did when he was uncomfortable. "He makes the Glee Club numbers uneven."

Aria laughed. "Is that it?"

Danny mumbled, "I don't think he is the right guy for you." Her face fell. "I mean- you've changed since he came into the picture."

"Change isn't always a bad thing," She replied. "And there's been loads of reasons why I've changed; I've realised Sam and the Brats-I mean Bailey and Travis- are my family, I've felt like my friendships were improving, I've been actually slightly enjoying school." He didn't say anything. "Look, you and Nat and Liam are some of the most important people in my life, but I think Milo could be pretty important too if I give him a chance." She sighed, rubbing a hand comfortably on his bare arm, but he jerked away a little. They were at the café now. "I'm gonna go order, can you and Liam get us a table?" Danny nodded. "The usual?" Another nod. Okay then…

The next evening was the winter dance for the freshmen. Aria had only been to one school dance before- Natalia had dragged her along and she had not enjoyed it. This time though she was feeling a lot better about herself and her life, and a night with her friends sounded fun. Sadly Milo couldn't come since this was a dance for freshmen and he was in the year above. She went over to Nat's house to get ready and they decided to meet the boys there. The group had all bought their outfits together on a trip to the mall, Nat's idea- Aria would have preferred to just buy the dresses online- and gosh had it been tiring. She was wearing a two strap short light blue dress and flats, while Nat wore a tighter orange dress that looked good with her skin tone, and short silver heels. "You look beautiful!" Her friend declared in excitement when she was dressed. Aria laughed, returning the compliment. Then Nat insisted on doing her hair, and Aria's, in curls- which had taken a while. By the time they got into her friend's dad's car Aria was already exhausted! The gym was decorated with streamers in a canopy, with a DJ booth at the front and tables scattered around. It didn't look perfect, but it looked like a high school dance- the girls grinned at each other and started dancing like no-one was watching.

* * *

After Glee Club the four friends walked to their favourite café. Suddenly, Aria asked why Danny didn't like Milo. He tried to stop his eyes from widening in horror and crossed his arms looking at the floor and mumbling something about him joining meaning that there was an extra boy so he wouldn't have a dance partner. Eventually he said he thought Milo was wrong for his friend, and that she'd changed, which clearly she didn't like. He did think those things, but of course the main problem was his feelings for her. Once they reached the café the girls went to order while him and Liam grabbed a table. Danny slumped down into the couch with his friend, pulling the snack out of his bag he had to have every day according to his therapist's food plan. Once the girls were standing in the queue, Liam whispered, "Dude, you have to tell her."

"Tell her what?" Danny felt himself becoming alert, unable to stop himself from jumping.

Liam raised an eyebrow. "You know what I mean. You need to tell Aria you like her before it's too late."

He was ready to deny it until he turned red, but suddenly Danny didn't have the energy too. He sighed. "How long have you known?"

"Not long," His friend replied. "You know I suck at this stuff, Nat pointed it out to me when I was being completely clueless." Before he could ask his next question, Liam added, "I don't think Ar knows, Nat says it's harder to see these types of things when you're the one being majorly crushed on."

Danny pulled a face. "I want to tell her- kind of." He lowered his voice even more. "But what if she doesn't feel the same way? What if it ruins our friendship?"

Liam gave him a comforting smile. "If she likes you back, great. If she doesn't like you back, that's just how it goes, but she'll be missing out." He winked. "Seriously though, we have such a strong friendship, she's not gonna turn on you because of something like this." As Danny took in his words, the girls came back with the coffees and hot chocolates.

Natalia sat down on a pouffe, taking a bite of brownie and then a sip of hot chocolate. "What were you guys talking about?"

Smiling against his cup of coffee, Liam said "Guy stuff." The girls exchanged a glance and burst out laughing.

The next day the boys got ready for the school dance at Liam's house, originally Danny hadn't wanted to go, but he'd agreed eventually. He looked at his suited up reflection in the mirror, mentally groaning at how scrawny and pathetic he looked. "Danny?"

"Huh?" He asked, turning at his name. Liam wasn't annoyed at all though, he just asked if Danny was going to tell Aria about his feelings today. "At the dance?" Liam nodded. "I'm not ready yet."

His friend sighed. "You'll probably never be ready, at some point you're just going to have to jump out of the airplane and pull the parachute." Danny laughed genuinely- for the first time in a little while, at his first friend's terrible metaphor- and agreed to think about it.

The two boys were dropped off by Liam's parents and made their way into the school gym. It was crowded and Danny crossed his arms, looking away from people as he followed Liam. They found the girls, dancing the robot and the nay-nay, laughing as a song boomed over the loudspeakers.

 _ **I hear your heart beat to the beat of the drums  
Oh, what a shame that you came here with someone  
So while you're here in my arms  
Let's make the most of the night like we're gonna die young**_

He remembered Liam's words: _"You need to tell Aria before it's too late", "she's not gonna turn on you because of something like this", "jump out of the airplane"._

"Aria I need to talk to you!" He blurted out, unknowingly interrupting their conversation about Regionals. Aria turned from her other friends, nodding, and followed Danny out into the hall. For a good half a minute, he stood still, plucking up the courage to do this.

 _ **Young hearts, out our minds**_

 _ **Running till we out our minds**_

 _ **Wild child's looking good**_

 _ **Living hard just like we should**_

His friend glanced at him worriedly. "You look a little pale. It is pretty crowded in there, do you want a drink or something?"

"I think I'm gonna faint."

Aria rushed forward but Danny put a hand out, "don't worry, I've eaten enough, it's not that."

 _ **Young hunks, taking shots  
Stripping down to dirty socks  
Music up, gettin' hot  
Kiss me, give me all you've got  
It's pretty obvious that you've got a crush**_

"I've-been-having-all-these-feelings-for-you-and-I-thought-they-might-go-away-but-they're-not-and-I-just-had-to-tell-you." He said in one long breath, staring at a spot on the wall behind Aria instead of into her eyes. There was a long silence and eventually Danny mumbled, "Sorry, I shouldn't have…", fading off as he started to walk away. Aria seemed to unfreeze, grabbing his hand before he could get away.

"Thanks for telling me," She said. "I'm sorry, I love you-"

"But not in that way?" She nodded sadly, letting him go. Danny crossed the hall into the boys bathroom as she slumped against the wall.

* * *

Asher and Maeve had both volunteered to perform at the freshman school dance- Marley thought it would be good for the Glee Club- after all, music was needed at dances and "surely people will appreciate us after this". A few others had volunteered but at the moment they were just playing an old song over the speakers.

 _ **Looking for some trouble tonight**_

 _ **Take my hand, I'll show you the wild side**_

 _ **Like it's the last night of our lives**_

 _ **We'll keep dancing till we die**_

"Wanna dance?" Asher asked the brunette before he could stop himself. She glanced at him.

"With all the fourteen and fifteen year olds?" She laughed, stopping when their eyes met as the words rang out.

 _ **Let's make the most of the night like we're gonna die young**_

Kurt's sister grabbed his arm- him letting out a tiny squeal in surprise, which she seemed to find hilarious- and they started bopping up and down like the young teens. "So what do you do when you're not performing at freshman dances?"

Asher shrugged. "Perform at sophomore dances." She giggled. "No, I like art class, so I've been doing some painting recently."

She nodded. "Oh cool. I like fashion design." He remembered the pieces of paper that had fallen out of her bag in Glee Club the other day which he'd helped her pick up- both of them banging heads in the process. So that's what that had been. He was about to ask some more questions about it when Lucas pushed them forwards.

"C'mon guys, the song's about to end, everything's ready." The two of them hurried onto the stage, Maeve straightening out the blue dress she'd worn to Homecoming. Two microphone stands were at the front of the stage and the DJ- aka their middle aged math teacher- gave them two thumbs up. With that he grabbed the microphone and sang into it, one spotlight on him, growing to include Maeve.

 _ **Asher: "Oh don't you dare look back.  
Just keep your eyes on me."  
I said, "You're holding back, "  
She said, (Maeve: "Shut up and dance with me!")  
This woman is my destiny  
She said, (with Maeve:)"Ooh-ooh-hoo,  
Shut up and dance with me."**_

Lights flashed in bright colours as they went into the first verse, lighting up the dancefloor as the younger kids cheered and laughed- pulling partners or friends into the middle of the gym as the two 'Gleeks' sung the crowd pleaser. They exchanged a glance- no-one seemed to care about hating the Glee Club when they were providing the soundtrack to their high school memories.

 _ **Asher (Maeve): Deep in her eyes, (hey!)  
I think I see the future.  
I realize (hey) this is my last chance.**_

 ** _Maeve: He took my arm,_**  
 ** _I don't know how it happened._**  
 ** _Asher and Maeve: We took the floor and she/he said,_**

Again, they looked at each other as their voices harmonised perfectly together creating a beautiful crescendo. They finished the song, Asher in a weird trance-type state where he could only hear their voices and could only see Maeve. He felt like they were the only two people in the world as he looked at her from her flowing chestnut hair to the grin on her face as she sung, her green eyes glittering with amusement.

 _ **Shut up and dance with me!**_

* * *

Maya Bieste glared at her brother from across the hall at the freshman dance. Kieran's black hair kept flipping awkwardly over his face as he talked to those Gleeks. She couldn't believe he'd actually joined that club- it was social suicide, and it wasn't like they needed to add more fuel to flame the fire- people already taunted and jeered at them enough. Yeah, she thought, taking another swig of her punch, it was better to have no friends than Glee friends…still…

Eurgh, she hadn't even wanted to come to this thing anyway, she'd known it would be lame when she found out the Glee Club were performing, but her dad had said she had to go, to talk to her friends and have fun like a normal high schooler- he had no idea. Kindergarten had been fine, so had elementary, it had started in middle school, the whispers, the laughter. Some people were perfectly accepting, but in a small town in Lima, there was still transphobia. The first time Maya experienced it, she and Kieran were waiting to be picked up in the schoolyard when one of the moms pulled her kid away, he'd been talking to them, a look of horror on her face. She had turned to a confused friend's whispering something along the lines of "…adopted…of Coach Bieste…used to teach my brother…disgusting".

Slowly, Maya turned her head back to her adopted brother. Kieran was laughing with the other Glee boys, and the older Glee members had come over to talk as well, clapping each other on the back for their good singing as the choir teacher beamed ear to ear and they all laughed happily. Deep down, she wanted that. She wanted friends who cared about her for who she was. She wanted a common goal to achieve together. Before her mind could process what she was doing, the way she normally worked, her body had taken control and yanked her up, making her walk towards them. The Glee Club members went silent when they saw her, likely thinking she was going to brandish a slushie and throw it in their faces or something ridiculous like that. "Iwanttojoingleeclub!" She murmured before she could stop herself. A couple of them looked between each other, confused, but Kieran broke into a wide smile.

"Are you serious?" He asked and she nodded uncertainly, at which point her brother wrapped her in a tight hug, his glasses banging against her head pretty weakly.

She hung her arms at his side weakly, unsure what to do with them, but found herself smiling softly as he let go and Marley asked her to audition on Monday afternoon.

* * *

Everyone, minus Danny, was sat in the choir room for Maya's audition. She looked uncomfortable for a moment before launching into a performance of Titanium. Beth had been nervous about admitting someone who'd been openly against the Glee Club from the getgo, but it turned out Maya had a beautiful voice, and she sung each word like it meant something huge to her, accompanied only by the piano.

 _ **Maya: I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose**_

 _ **Fire away, fire away**_

 _ **Ricochet, you take your aim**_

 _ **Fire away, fire away**_

 _ **You shoot me down but I won't fall**_

 _ **I am titanium**_

By the end of her performance, Beth was wiping tears away from her eyes when she felt Aisha pull her hand out of hers and smile, starting to clap. The others joined and then Aisha added "thank you Maya, that was beautiful, and helpful for me, and I'm sure everyone else too." The others nodded and Marley did too, wiping away a stray tear.

"I agree wholeheartedly. Welcome to the New Directions, Maya." The raven-haired girl grinned and took a seat beside her brother. "While choreography and being in tune are both obviously important things, when it comes down to it, Glee is about the emotion; passion, joy, sadness, anger, fear. That's why this week I'm challenging you to sing whatever you're feeling." Marley took a pen from beside the whiteboard and wrote 'Emotion' on it as the clock turned half three. "Okay then, we can leave early today then, unless anyone has anything already prepared that would fit?" She glanced at them. Aria raised her hand and Marley nodded for her to go ahead.

The brunette passed the piano player her music before sitting down on the stool Maya had just been sitting on and saying in a clearly upset voice, "My mom wrote this song and performed it at regionals when she was in New Directions".

 _ **Aria: What have I done?**_

 _ **I wish I could run,**_

 _ **Away from this ship going under**_

 _ **Just trying to help**_

 _ **Hurt everyone else**_

 _ **Now I feel the weight of the world is on my shoulders**_

Beth put a hand to her mouth in shock. She'd not seen Aria for a few days but the last time she'd seen her she'd been happily laughing and joking with her and Aisha in the car. What could have possibly happened in a few days? She turned to Aria's boyfriend, but Milo just shrugged sadly before turning back to Aria, looking worried. Then she looked at Natalia and Liam, they looked upset too. Danny wasn't here, maybe it had something to do with him? Did she feel somehow partially responsible for his eating disorder? Was she just worried about him? The blonde felt awful looking at the pain on her friend and niece's face.

 _ **Aria: What can you do when your good isn't good enough**_

 _ **And all that you touch tumbles down?**_

 _ **Cause my best intentions**_

 _ **Keep making a mess of things,**_

 _ **I just wanna fix it somehow**_

 _ **But how many times will it take?**_

 _ **To get it right, to get it right…**_

Aria looked at them for a moment after she finished, her eyes seeming to rest on Milo before she burst out crying and left the room. Immediately Liam, Natalia and Milo all sprung to their feet but Beth held a hand out. "I'll go check on her." They nodded.

Beth raced down the halls until she heard the faint sound of crying coming from the boys locker room. The boys locker room? "Aria?" Beth called, covering her nose at the smell. The brunette girl was leaning against the wall, shaking with tears. "What are you doing in here?"

"I thought you wouldn't come in," She whispered in a weak voice. Gently, Beth pulled her up by the arm.

"Come on," She said, "Let's find a bathroom so we can get you some tissue." Once they'd made it to the nearest girl's bathroom, which took a while, Aria leant back again, sliding down the wall. After pulling out some tissue and handing it to her niece, Beth joined her on the floor, just letting her rest her head on her shoulder until she wanted to talk.

"God, I feel so stupid." Aria suddenly declared out of nowhere, her voice hoarse from all the crying. "How could I not have known? And now I've only made things worse. He's one of the most important people in my life. I'd never want to hurt him."

Beth passed her some more tissue. "Slow down, sweetie, what happened?" Taking a deep breath, Aria croakily recounted how Danny had told her he had romantic feelings for her and she'd not said anything, resulting in him leaving and added that he hadn't talked to her at all over the weekend. "Oh, Ar," The blonde pushed some of her friend's hair behind her ear. "I know it hurts that you've upset your best friend but it's not your fault that you don't reciprocate his feelings."

Aria pulled her knees up and leaned her head on them. "I wish I did. It would have been so much easier. I could have told him I loved him to, he would have smiled and hugged me. I would have helped him through his eating disorder, he'd get better. We'd get into the same college, graduate, move in together, get married, have kids." She let out a long strangled sigh and pushed her hair back. "Now I've only upset him, and he might get worse, and I won't be able to help or ever see him again because every time he sees me he'll be reminded of how I rejected his feelings." Beth leant over and enveloped Aria in a hug, as the door to the bathroom opened and her other two best friends came in, looks of concern covering their faces.

 _ **Songs featured: Die Young- Ke$ha (speakers)**_

 _ **Shut Up and Dance with Me- Walk the Moon (Maeve &Asher)**_

 _ **Get it Right- Glee Cast (Aria)**_


	11. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10:**_

 _ **Previously on the New New Directions: At the freshman winter dance Asher and Maeve shared another moment, Kieran's sister Maya decided to join Glee Club, and Liam convinced Danny to tell Aria about his feelings for her, but she didn't reciprocate them.**_

Sitting in her classroom nervously chewing gum, Aria doodled instead of making notes, she just couldn't right now. Ever since that night at the freshman dance she hadn't heard or seen anything from Danny and she was incredibly worried; not just for their friendship but also for the panic that she had worsened his eating disorder by rejecting him and making him more stressed and depressed. All she wanted to do was run out of this stupid geography lesson, go to Danny's house, tell him she was so sorry and everything would go back to normal. God, she felt horrible. She wished more than anything that she felt butterflies when he touched her, that she loved him in the same way he loved her. He could have smiled and kissed her instead of frowning and walking away. She could have helped him through his eating disorder instead of worsening it. They could have lived happily ever after. But she didn't feel that way about him, and to say she did would have been a lie of a fairytale, and the one thing she refused to do to her friends was lie to them, no matter how much the truth hurt that had always been her motto in life. And yet she felt like she was going to snap inside.

For the umpteenth time, Aria turned to her best friends to ask if Danny had texted them. Just as they were both about to say no a beep came from Liam's phone.

"Check your phones are on silent please class," Their teacher drawled and Aria managed to whisper,

"Was that-?" As Liam checked his phone.

"No, it was my mom." He said. Aria shrunk back into her chair, closing her eyes for a brief moment.

Natalia put her hand on top of her friend's. "I'm going to the dentists near Danny today, I can check in on him." Aria wrapped her arms around her friend happily, making an uncharacteristic squeal.

"You three at the back," The geography teacher paused in his lecture and stared at them, as did the rest of the class. "Is there a problem?"

Liam answered for the three, "No Sir. We just love geography so the girls got a little over excited about tectonic plates." Natalia stifled a laugh, as did some of the class, and their teacher, before he turned and continued writing on the board.

* * *

After school and the dentists that day, Natalia had asked her mom to drop her off at the Schuesters. She'd knocked on the door and been met with Emma, who readily let her in, expressing how worried she was about her son, who'd holed himself up in his room for the past few days, and was hoping his friend could bring him out of his sadness a little. So Nat made her way up the stairs and through the familiar upstairs corridor until she got to the two adjacent doors of Danny and Eleanor's bedrooms. His had a name hanger with the letters of his name spelled out on it in bright colours, the same way all four of the friends had one. It had been Nat's idea, they'd been out shopping and she'd seen some and though they were cute. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door softly. No answer. "Danny? It's me, Nat." Still no answer. "I'm coming in, okay?" She said eventually. The door was unlocked but Danny wasn't in there. Confused, Nat glanced around the room for a second before realising the door to the bathroom he shared with his sister was open. She peered inside and saw her friend pulling himself up from the toilet in a panic, flushing his sick down. "Danny!" She raced over and knelt down beside him. He looked away as if in shame, seeming like he was searching for an excuse. "Were you- making yourself throw up?" He nodded weakly, looking like he expected a lecture. Instead she gave him a hug, then pushed his hair out of his face, feeling tears coming to her own eyes. "How long has this been going on?"

"Only since the New Year's party." She bit her lip and hugged him again,

"Because of Aria?"

He stared at the floor and she could tell he really didn't want to say anything to her, but finally he answered. "Partially."

She took one of his hands in hers and whispered, "I know this probably feels like the end of the world, but I believe in soulmates. I believe there's someone out there for you, who can help your heart heal."

He nodded. "I want to still be friends with here, but it's going to be hard. I think we need some time apart." Natalia nodded.

"Will you come back to school though?" Weakly, he nodded. Smiling reassuring, Nat asked if he wanted to go talk to his parents about what she'd seen him doing. Immediately he shook his head. "Danny-" She started.

"No! You don't understand! I don't want to disappoint them anymore, and I don't know if I can stop!" He'd raised his voice a little but he lowered it when he heard footsteps and Emma asking if everything was okay. "It's fine, mom." _Please_ , he mouthed. Biting her lip again, Natalia shook her head.

She took the hand he'd dropped a moment ago. "This is an addiction, like drugs, and it's going to be hard, but if you want to quit your addiction you need to ask for help." Her friend was still clearly angry, his other hand clenched into a fist and his face pale. Softly, she moved to push the hair falling into his face out of the way but he jerked away, staring at her through his eyelashes. That wasn't going to stop her though, Nat had made a vow to herself back in middle school to repay her friends in anyway that she could, and this was one of those ways. "How about we don't tell your parents just yet, if, you'll come with me to see your counsellor."

Danny sighed. "Promise you won't tell my mom or dad till I'm ready." Natalia stood up and held out a hand to help her friend up too.

"I promise."

* * *

As they sat at their favourite table in the mall, Aisha rolled her eyes. "We come here way too often, I'm pretty sure you have an obsession."

Beth laughed. "I'm not the only one laden down with bags!" She teased her girlfriend, leaning across the table and kissing her. Aisha smiled against the blonde's mouth. It had been difficult but she really was feeling good now after everything that had happened in the past six months or so. Beth was amazing, Shelby was amazing, her SAT scores were amazing, cheer was amazing, Glee Club was amazing- Regionals were next week and they'd all been practising hard, it was surely going to get them through to the next stage. Beth had really gotten a passion for acting since joining Glee Club and had been acting in school plays, community theatre, singing, dancing, anything to get her experience. As a result her letters to the colleges she wanted to go were packed and very impressive. She knew what she wanted to do; perform in any way she could. Aisha wasn't so sure about herself. Her father was a lawyer and she had been thinking about following that path but she now realised it had only been because she wanted to make him proud, it wasn't her dream. What was her dream? When she pictured her future it was like there was a big question mark, and sure, as Shelby and Beth said, she didn't have to know exactly what she wanted to do, but the problem was she had no clue. Beth's dream was Julliard so that narrowed it down; Manhattan. Still, what to study? Aisha was still waiting to hear back from the main school she wanted, Columbia. She'd written that she wanted to study medicine and business in a last minute decision but she was doubting it now. Even if she got in she'd need at least a part scholarship, it was wonderful of Shelby to take her in, but she couldn't ask her to completely pay for two college tuitions. That's why she'd gotten a job in the mall; she certainly spent enough time here what with shopping with Beth and working in the canteen. It might seem like she was wasting away her money on the things she'd bought today, but it was mainly college stuff for next year- only one or two unnecessary jackets.

"I'm gonna go get some water," Beth announced, standing up and wandering over to the vending machine near them. Aisha didn't pay much attention until she heard a groan from behind her. Flipping around she saw that the water was jammed. Aisha started to smile at her girlfriend's cute frustration… until a college guy with a leather jacket and slick dark hair came over to her aid, banging on the machine. Beth loved brunettes, Aisha should know. The blonde girl giggled, thanking the guy. He replied, saying something about how it was no problem, he loved to save damsels in distress. Beth thanked him again but added, "I don't need any shining knights right now, I've got a great girlfriend." She laughed before coming back over to their table, the guy's eyes stayed on her the whole time. The blonde put a hand on Aisha's when they were both sitting down. "You okay?"

The brunette nodded. "I'm not trying to sound like a clingy annoying girlfriend, but sometimes it's just frustrating that I have so much competition, you know, next year we're gonna be at different schools and I'm sure there'll be lots of hot talented Juilliard guys and girls-"

Beth stopped her. "You don't have anything to worry about! I get jealous too, but you should know I love you in a way I've never loved any other guy or girl." She squeezed Aisha's hand gently.

* * *

Marley sat at her desk tapping her pen as she remembered the principal's words about how Glee Club would have to end if they didn't get to Nationals. Regionals was in less than two weeks and she hadn't even opened the letter telling her the theme. God, she felt like such a failure to the kids. When Mr Schue had been running New Directions it had always been a way to work through problems, or push them away and think about something happier. Nowadays it felt like they were just getting in the way. Maybe she should just give up, go back to being a radio show host. No! What was she thinking? If she gave up now she'd be as bad as Sue.

Marley grabbed the letter from a pile of them and looked at the theme. Love. Well that was a broad topic. Okay, what would Mr Schue do? Probably a ballad or solo, and two more energetic group numbers. After thinking of some good songs she made two polls (one for the ballad, one for the group numbers) and sent them to the Glee Club to vote for the songs they wanted to sing.

The next day when she came back into school they'd all voted online. They wanted the ballad to be All of Me by John Legend, and the top two group numbers were Lay All Your Love on Me by Abba and Still Into You by Paramore. Marley found herself smiling as she texted Jake to ask if he was free to teach the kids some choreography next Monday after they'd perfected the singing this week. This wasn't over until they said it was over.

* * *

"Could Beth Corcoran please head to the principal's office," The familiar secretary Jenny's shrill voice said through the loudspeaker. Aisha glanced across at Beth, who just shrugged and gathered her things before shouldering her bag and heading to the principal's office. She hoped this wasn't going to be too long; it was almost the end of lesson she had dance routines to perfect for Regionals at lunch break. Jenny smiled weakly at Beth when she went past, which Beth, who grinned at the older woman, thought a little odd. Surprisingly, when Beth entered the room there were three chairs set in front of the principal's chair, and two of these were occupied by an increasingly pregnant Quinn, and Puck, both in the sweats that their jobs required. Beth cast her glance to each person in the room suspiciously in turn and realised they were all staring at her. So she dumped her bag on the floor beside the middle chair and sat down in it.

"Um, is this going to be quick?" Beth asked. "Because I have Glee Club."

"Miss Corcoran, you won't be expected to go to that today." The principal said, reaching over and patting her hand on the blonde's, which rested on the table.

"Why?" Beth asked, confused. "What's going on?"

"Beth honey," Quinn said softly. "There's been an accident." Beth's mind immediately flashed to the worst case scenario, her eyes widened and her breathing sped up. She reached for Quinn's hand and squeezed it so hard she was surprised it didn't break.

"Mom. She okay is, right?" Beth looked from person to person, finding her words mixing up in the shock and horror of the moment. "Right?"

Puck took her other hand, not answering the question. "It was a car accident, a drunk driving way past the speed limit." Beth felt the tears that she hardly ever let even trickle out cascading down her face. "He was fine but Shelby's in hospital."

"Can I go see her?" Beth asked eventually.

"Of course you can sweetheart," Quinn said. "We'll come with you and you can ride with us in Puck's car. Rachel's listed as her emergency contact, so she's already there. Sam's going to take Aria to the hospital straight after school."

"They think she'll still be in after school?"

Puck looked lost at what to say. "Probably quite a bit longer."

The journey was absolutely silent as Beth stared at the seat in front of her, Puck drove, and Quinn kept glancing back at her biological daughter.

Finally the car pulled up at the hospital and Beth practically leapt out of the car in the direction of the reception desk, her biological parents following behind her.

She was not in the least bit prepared for the scene that she was met with.

Shelby was lain on the bed hooked up to seemingly hundreds of machines, with her face deathly white and her eyes closed.

"Mom!" Beth cried out. Quinn tried to hold her back but Beth broke through the small semi-circle of doctors and collapsed onto the bed, shaking with tears, as she wrapped her arms around the limp figure lying on the bed that was a dull imitation of the woman who'd seen her off from school that morning, shouting at her that she would be checking and there would be consequences if Beth hadn't made her bed. Why hadn't she made her bed? "Mom," She sobbed into the baggy hospital gown her mother would never wear of her own accord. "I'm so sorry." Beth felt herself being lightly pulled upwards and tried to resist but relented when she realised that they were just pushing her up into a chair a short distance away from the bed, so that she could still touch her mother. Beth held onto her mom's hand and stared at her face, willing her eyes to flap open, as she half listened to her mother's doctor telling Beth and Quinn about Shelby's condition. Beth heard odd words here and there, "...head...cancer...the tumour...weak...comatose..." She turned off at that completely. She was vaguely aware of a warmth on her hand and looked over, noticing for the first time that her sister Rachel was sat on the other side of the bed, also crying, and with one hand was holding Shelby's hand and with the other was squeezing Beth's.

Beth didn't look to see who patted her shoulder, just staring numbly at her family's linked hands way past when the door clicked shut and it was just the three of them left in the room.

 ** _A/N: :(_**

 ** _This is where I've written up to so I'm not sure how often updates will be from now on. I'll try my best but this is a really busy year so sorry if they're not up every week like they have been so far._**


	12. Chapter 11

_**Chapter 12:**_

 _ **AN: Sorry it's been so long and that the next chapter will probably be a while too! I've got a lot of stories on the go that I'm not posting but I'll try and work hard on this too.**_

 _ **Previously on The New New Directions: Aria and Danny weren't talking after she told him she didn't feel the same way as he did, Natalia found out about his bulimia, Beth and Aisha were applying to colleges, Marley decided the Glee Club wasn't done yet, and Shelby was involved in a car accident and didn't make it.**_

"Where are Beth, Aisha and Aria?" Marley asked the glee club the day after the accident. Natalia and Liam explained how Shelby had been in a car accident and that her daughters and grand-daughter went to the hospital the previous day. Aisha had stayed home with Beth to comfort her. Marley's face fell and she reached for her phone automatically. "Oh no, I'm going to call them and see if they're okay. Well, I uh think we should have today off if we don't have three of our main soloists. I'll see you all on Monday?"

"But Mrs Puckerman!" Maya Bieste protested. "Regionals is in less than two weeks! Shouldn't we be preparing?"

"Don't worry," Answered Marley distractedly as she reached into her phone to call her brother-in-law. "We'll be fine. See you on Monday." The kids filed out of the room.

Danny, who'd started coming back to Glee Club only for the singing as he wasn't allowed to exercise until he put on some more weight, called out to his two friends to wait up. ""I had no idea that happened to Shelby. Have you guys heard from Ar?... Or Beth?" Nat shook her head and Liam explained,

"We tried to visit yesterday but the hospital said it was family only and Sam left a very brief text saying that Shelby didn't make it… they're at home today." All three friends stared at the floor for a few moments, remembering Shelby's fun-filled parties, her willingness to accept Aisha into her house, her loud, beautiful singing voice. It was crazy to think it was all gone. That she was gone.

Pulling out his phone to write a text, Danny told his friends how good it had been of Aria to give him some space these past couple of weeks, but that now she needed him, and he would be here for her, sending a similar text to his best friend. Natalia's eyes filled with tears and she pulled Liam over to their other friend for a three-way hug, whispering that she was glad he was back.

* * *

Curled up in a ball in the spare room at the Evans' house, Beth tried to hide her sobs. She'd been crying practically all night and Aisha had stayed up with her, stroking her hair, whispering that everything would be okay, trying everything she could to comfort her. The house was filled with the people that she cared about; Rachel and Sam in their room, Aria, Bailey and Travis together in the younger kids' room, her biological parents in Aria's room, Aisha beside her. It was comforting, knowing they were all here and all in the same boat, but the pangs in her heart wouldn't stop due to the fact that the one person she wanted more than anything to hug her wasn't here. She never would be. She'd never tell her she loved her again, she'd never listen to her stupid daughter drone on and on about damn Marlene Jennings again, she'd never take pictures at her graduation, or help her move out, or beam at her as she walked down the aisle, or babysit her kids. Without her consent, a muffled wail escaped her lips and she didn't even realise she was forming words. "Why, why, why, why, why!" Her bawls woke her girlfriend, and probably anyone else in the house who'd managed to sleep, up. Aisha tried to wrap her arms around her to calm her down but Beth pulled away, out of the bed. "It's gone, it's all gone." She didn't know if she was making any sense, she didn't even know what she was saying. "There's nothing- there's no-one-" She grabbed the nearest object and hurled it at the wall. A loud smash resounded throughout the room and she saw Aisha just sat on the bed, waiting to see what her girlfriend needed. A moment passed where the blonde just stared at the shattered remains of what had once been a snow globe, then she shut her eyes and fell to the floor, tears silently pouring down her face instead of loudly like earlier.

Footsteps came towards her, which she expected to be Aisha's but instead when she looked up she saw blonde hair, worried hazel eyes and a baby bump. Behind the blonde, Puck crouched on the floor. They looked unsure of what to do but eventually they both hugged her and she cried against someone's chest. Finally, when it felt like she couldn't cry anymore, Quinn bent down so they were looking at each other.

"Bethy," She said. "We don't want to push you anything, but, in your mom's will it said that if anything happened to you she wanted us to look after you." Beth met her eyes, seeing the redness around them that betrayed how her birth mother was reacting to what happened.

"We got the call this morning," Puck said in a gruff voice- he sounded like he'd been crying too, but was trying to hide it. "And we want you to know honey," She looked over to him now. "You don't have to make the decision now. We've talked to Rachel and Sam and they said they're happy for both you and Aisha to stay here if that's what you want, but just now you're both welcome to come live at ours as well." He glanced over to Aisha at this and she nodded with a soft smile, thanking them.

Puck helped Quinn to her feet and the two of them started to leave when Beth interrupted. "Wait." She found she had to say it twice, her voice so hoarse from all the screaming and shouting and sobbing. She stood up as well, a little unsteady on her feet. It was what her mom wanted, and it was what she wanted too. She needed parents, and though she knew that they could never replace her mom, Puck and Quinn were something different, but just as familiar. "I-I want to stay with you guys- if that's okay with you?" She turned to Aisha. "And you."

Her parents nodded and her girlfriend cracked a smile again. "Of course babe, whatever you want to do."

"Okay then," Puck told his daughter. "We'll go talk to your sister, I'm sure she'll be glad she won't have five kids running rampant in the house."

Beth tried a smile at the joke. It wouldn't quite come but she knew Puck saw the effort by the way he gave her his own little smile and then kissed her on the forehead before heading out of the room, his wife on his heels.

Letting out a sigh, the blonde sat herself back on the bed, before her girlfriend pulled her into her lap. She was surprised Aisha could do it but to be fair she was very weak at the moment. "Thank you," She said, before lying down so her head rested on the brunette's.

"For what?" Aisha asked twiddling a piece of blonde hair around her finger.

"For everything," Beth replied. "For helping me, loving me, supporting me. For everything you've done so far and everything I know you'll do in the future."

"Thank you for doing the same for me," Aisha whispered and then she lent down and lightly brushed their lips together.

* * *

The Glee Club (sans Beth and Aria) sat around a table in the mall on Saturday afternoon. Danny had sent them all a text, not on the group chat they used for Glee meetings and things but a new one without the two girls. They had decided not to just cancel Glee and forget about competitions but to use this club for what it was meant to be used for and support their members that were in need. It had been his idea but he wanted their opinions and ideas.

"I agree it's a great plan Danny," Said Marley. "Have any of you guys got any song ideas?" She wrote down all their suggestions in her notebook and then the group poured over them, looking for the perfect supportive song to sing to their friends.

"Hold on," Said Kaelynn and she scribbled down a song on a piece of paper. Everyone looked at it and nodded, loving the idea.

The Sunday three days after Shelby's death, Rachel found herself at her mother's house. She knew they'd have to do this eventually but she herself had been hoping to put it off for a while. Beth though, wanted to get it done and she wanted to do whatever she could to help her little sister. The two of them had taken on Shelby's room and a few tears had been shed by each of them as they looked at the photos she kept in there; one of her and Beth posing beneath the Eiffel Tower, another of her and Rachel with their arms around each other's. Rachel remembered that day well. It was soon after her dads told her they were getting a divorce and she hadn't known who to turn to. She knew Shelby had been right all those years ago when she said she didn't need her, she needed her dads, but things changed. In that moment, she needed her mother. So in that moment she picked up Baby Aria and drove to her mother's house, praying she still lived there. Thankfully she did. Rachel did a whole lot of incoherent crying and Shelby took Aria from her arms, placed her down on the mat beside a four year old Beth, and then hugged her daughter. Shelby had been an important part of her life ever since and now, almost fourteen years later, she was stood in her now dead mother's room with the almost eighteen year old Beth, while her husband and her fifteen year old daughter boxed up things across the room.

"Let's go have a look downstairs," Rachel said softly, taking her adoptive sister's arm. They went all the way down to the basement and started to slowly sort through the boxes, reminding Rachel of the time she and Jesse searched for her birth mother in 'the Rachel shrine'. It was similar down here; boxes full of Beth's old things, some of the trophies they didn't keep upstairs, some photos, old baby clothes. Of course most of Rachel's childhood things were split between her dads' houses but she found her old pink tape-CD player, covered in gold star stickers. "Huh," She let out a surprised noise and Beth turned around then walked up behind her.

"What is it?"

"I just found the old CD player I played the message on from Shelby where she told me she was my mother and sang a song to me." Beth smiled. "I made my Dads buy me a new CD player after that, I know, weird, but it felt… special. I never wanted to play any other music on there." She paused and then pressed down on it. "Wonder if it's still in there…" It was. They played it through once and then Beth looked down at the box it had come from and pulled out another tape, this one marked with the blonde's name. Seeing it, Rachel quickly pulled out her own and put in her sister's. They both sat down on the floor with it between them, listening intently. The tape started with the same six words as Rachel's old one had.

"Hey baby girl,

It's your mama." Shelby on the tape let out a little chuckle. "Never thought I'd be doing this again." The two girls shared a knowing look, having just listened to Rachel's tape. "But here I am, and I couldn't be happier. I'm getting another chance and I'm exhilarated. I can't seem to put you down. It took everything my friends had to drag me away for you for some 'me time', but even on my 'me time' I find myself here, making this for you." Tape Shelby let out a sigh.

"This tape is gonna be buried down here in the basement where I hope you'll find it when I'm gone, if it comes to that. There's something I'm not sure if I'll have told you yet hon, y'know, you never know what can happen. You're adopted. Your parents are Quinn Fabray and Noah Puckerman…" Another sigh. "I never want you to be alone baby girl, so I've done something I didn't think I'd be doing for a long time, I started a will. I wrote down that I want your biological parents to be your guardians if I'm ever gone. I know it might be a bit of shock if you don't know them yet, but trust me, they are good people and there's no-one I'd trust more with your life." Her voice trembled and Rachel turned her head to see how Beth was handling this.

"But I don't want to force you into anything honey, so if you're old enough to make the decision there's something else you should know. I had a child when I was a teenager and I gave her up. I never got to hold her and it wasn't until she was a teenager herself that I met her. I wanted so badly to grab her and hug her and take her home with me but I decided she was better off with her dads. But still… her name is Rachel Berry and she's your sister, and I'm sure she'd love to look after you too baby if it comes to that." Rachel put her hand over her sister's and mouthed, "I love you."

"See baby girl, look how many people there already are that I know care about you, and I'm sure in the future you'll draw many more to yourself. You'll never be alone."

When she heard the music starting, Rachel sung along, and slowly, Beth started to join her.

" _ **Another day has gone**_

 _ **I'm still all alone**_

 _ **How could this be**_

 _ **You're not here with me**_

 _ **You never said goodbye**_

 _ **Someone tell me why**_

 _ **Did you have to go**_

 _ **And leave my world so cold"**_

They both slowly faded off as their mother sang,

" _ **You are not alone  
For I am here with you  
Though you're far away  
I am here to stay  
For you are not alone  
For I am here with you  
Though we're far apart  
You're always in my heart"**_

The tape ended and the girls sat there for a few moments, no noise save the reeling of the tape.

Then suddenly, "I love you baby girl, and Rach, if you're listening, I love you too big girl."

"I'm always here for you Bethy," Rachel whispered. "Even though you want to live with Quinn and Puck, you're always welcome at ours, and you can always talk to me."

* * *

"Ari just texted saying they're almost back from Shelby's," Natalia announced to the group gathered in the Evans household. Quinn and Puck, who were babysitting Bailey and Travis, had let their sister-in-law and the Glee Club in, and Marley now sat there, along with her students, her family, and other Glee alumni. The group only had to wait a couple more minutes before the door opened and in came Rachel, Sam, Aria and Beth. Rachel, at the front, was the first to see them, and she looked shocked to see them.

"What are you guys doing here?" She asked. Santana and Brittany came over and pulled her into a chair, Jake and Will did the same to Sam, Maeve and Kaelynn took Beth, and Liam and Natalia took Aria's arm. At the same time, Danny explained how they all decided they wanted to support their friends, and were going to do it the best way they knew how. His eyes went to Aria's as he started to sing, trying to express how sorry he was for how he'd reacted to her rejection.

 _ **Danny: It hurts my heart**_

 _ **To see you cry**_

 _ **I know it's dark**_

 _ **This part of life**_

 _ **New Directions: Oh it finds us all (alumni: finds us all)**_

 _ **All: And we're too small**_

 _ **To stop the rain**_

 _ **Oh but when it rains**_

 _ **I will stand by you**_

 _ **I will help you through**_

 _ **When you've done all you can do**_

 _ **And you can't cope**_

 _ **I will dry your eyes**_

 _ **I will fight your fight**_

 _ **I will hold you tight**_

 _ **And I won't let you fall**_

 _ **Milo & Asher & Natalia & Liam: Won't let you go**_

 _ **Danny & Aisha: No, I won't**_

Danny approached Aria and pulled her to the side as Marley talked about how they would all support the family. "Did you get my text?" He asked. She nodded. Danny started to fidget and mumble, unsure of himself. "So, um, I mean-" Aria launched herself into him, crying against his shoulder softly. His hands rested at his side for a moment but then he returned the hug, wrapping his arms around her in the familiar way they'd always done.

"Please never leave me again," The brunette cried and he nodded. Never again.


	13. AN

Hi, I just wanted to tell you guys that although I have ideas for this story they can't seem to come out on paper so I've decided to leave it here. It's not the ending I originally planned but I think it's quite a sweet one anyway.

Thank you so much to anyone who has supported me- any reviewers, followers, favourite-ers (?) and any silent readers as well. I hope you enjoyed the story like I enjoyed writing it.


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